Stoves and furnaces – Process of heating by using solar heat
Patent
1992-03-10
1993-07-06
Yeung, James C.
Stoves and furnaces
Process of heating by using solar heat
126587, 126597, 126641, 126643, 622351, F24J 200
Patent
active
052244660
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a process and apparatus for converting solar energy into heat by means of a solar collector consisting of a plurality of mutually coupled collector elements placed on the outside of a building or the like and connected to a heat transfer fluid network. More particularly each collector element includes a collector channel located at the bottom of a collector chamber delimited by a transparent cover, the collector channel being normally connected via a connecting line consisting of a forward branch and return branch to a high-temperature reservoir until a control valve arrangement is reversed and the collector channel is disconnected from the high-temperature reservoir and connected to a low-temperature reservoir for heat pump operation when the temperature of the circulating heat transfer fluid falls below a minimum value predetermined by the temperature in the high-temperature reservoir and measured by means of a temperature sensor associated with the collector channel.
An apparatus of this type is of relevance above all for electrical multivalent domestic-heat-control, with solar energy preferably being used, in which the solar collector is associated with an absorber facing away from the sun, thus forming a collector referred to as "hybrid collector" or "all-weather collector", respectively.
In a known process of this type, which makes use of the apparatus disclosed in European Patent Application 0,054,729, the heat transfer fluid to be found, when the collector channel is connected to the low-temperature reservoir, in the disconnected idle part of the line running to the high-temperature reservoir can cool down to the ambient temperature. As a consequence, with increasing sunshine and transition to high-temperature reservoir operation, first the comparatively cold heat transfer fluid flows into the high-temperature reservoir before the heated follow-on heat-transfer fluid exiting the collector channel which is exposed to the sunlight enters the high-temperature reservoir. On the other hand, since the high-temperature reservoir is connected to the heat transfer fluid network containing the pump and the collector channel, at cold weather there is a danger of thermosiphon circulation of the heat transfer fluid from the high-temperature reservoir to the collector channel where the heat is conveyed to the surrounding region.
Here it should be mentioned that in a process of a different class, wherein the energy is obtained exclusively with the aid of the collector channel of a solar collector and the heated heat transfer fluid is supplied by means of a circulation pump via a connecting line to a single reservoir, this circulation and thus the connection to the reservoir is disconnected if the temperature of the heat transfer fluid falls below a predetermined temperature as a result of decreasing sunlight. In this device, a heat valve, whose structure and function correspond to that of the radiator valve of a motor vehicle and which is connected to a short-circuit branch which short-circuits the reservoir, is provided for bridging the cycle running through the reservoir. Accordingly, the circulation pump pumps the heat transfer fluid only through the short-circuit branch. The reservoir is connected again to the cycle only when the heat valve effects the necessary switchover when the predetermined minimum temperature is reached. Such a heat valve switchover has considerable drawbacks. As long as the predetermined temperature has not yet been reached again, the operation of the circulation pump is practically futile. In this case either a timer control for switching on and, when necessary, switching off pump operation is necessary, or additional temperature sensors involving high expenditures have to be used in order to guarantee appropriate pump operation. Moreover, there exists a special drawback in that during times of particularly intensive sunlight the temperature in the reservoir can rise to a value which is considerably higher than the limiting value f
REFERENCES:
patent: 4251997 (1981-02-01), Newton
patent: 4527618 (1985-07-01), Fyfe
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