Investigation of the performance of the integrated solar collector and pond system

In this work, a solar pond system having a radius of 0.80 m, a depth of 2.0 m integrated with four flat plate collectors with dimensions of 1.90 m x 0.90 m was constructed. A cylindrical shell heat exchanger system was placed in the Heat Storage Zone of the solar pond. The heat exchanger system was connected to the flat plate collectors. The heat energy collected from the flat plate collectors was transferred to the Heat Storage Zone by using the heat exchanger system. Temperature sensors were placed vertically inside of the solar pond and at the inlet and the outlet of the heat exchanger. The temperature of the solar pond?s zones and the inlet and the outlet temperatures of the heat exchanger have been recorded by using a computer program. Both the density and the temperature distribution of the solar pond was measured from May, 2010 until November, 2011. The density and the temperature distribution of the integrated and non-integrated solar pond was obtained. In spite of sudden temperature increase in the Heat Storage Zone of the integated solar pond, the salinity gradient of the solar pond has been stable. Furthermore, the energy balance equations of the integrated solar pond were derived to determine the heat storage performance of the integrated and non-integrated solar pond. The integrated solar pond and the non-integrated solar pond?s efficiencies were calculated experimentally. As a result, the energy efficiencies of the integrated solar pond and the non-integrated solar pond were observed for the maximum as 33.55 % and 28.41 % in August, for the minimum as 9.48 % and 8.28 % in January, respectively. The results show that the integrated solar pond system works properly, and an integrated pond with suitable dimensions and properties can be used to obtain hot water for domestic and industrial use.