Читать книгу The Self-Sufficiency Handbook - Alan Bridgewater - Страница 58

There are three primary types of collector, all with slightly different qualities and characteristics. Research the options until you have a clear understanding of which will best suit your needs.

Flat collector: The collector is made up of radiator-like channels/tubes/pipes that sit on a thin, heat-absorbing sheet within an insulated box and glazed box—very much like the old 1970s prototypes. The water/fluid in the tubes draws heat from the absorber.

Wide-angle concentrator collector: The collector is a copper tube complete with fins that sits within a shaped collector housing. In many ways, this design is better than the flat collector because the curved shape focuses the sun’s rays on both the front and rear surfaces of the absorber plate.

Evacuated tube collector: The collector is a series of transparent glass tubes that have contained within their bodies an inner and outer tube, a vacuum, a heat-absorbing surface, a mirrored heat-reflecting surface, and a copper heating pipe. The sun’s heat is absorbed by a coating on the inner glass surface; the heat passes to the tip of the heating pipe and in turn is transferred to a copper manifold and then on to the storage tank.