Preliminary Studies on Design of Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) Solar Collector for Roofing System Application.

Abstract

Abstract This study was conducted to develop and study the performance of a Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) system technology, a system which combines the Photovoltaic (PV) system with a solar thermal (T) system that produces electricity and hot water simultaneously. The objective of this study is to develop a working prototype of the PVT system for roofing system application with water as the cooling agent. A polycrystalline PV cells was used as the solar collector while a transparent rubber tube was attached at the backside of the PV panel with water flowing directly from a water tap source. Two designs were examined for the heat absorber design which was categorized as the parallel and spiral flow design. The system was run at an open space to simulate real life application. A working PVT system was developed; however an electrical efficiency drops 0.3% and 1.07% on the parallel and spiral design respectively when compared to the standard PV system.