Experimental Of , Abstract

EXPERIMENTAL OF SOLAR AIR DRIER WITH AND WITHOUT COMMERCIAL MIRROR REFLECTOR Mirmanto Mechanical Engineering Department, The University of Mataram Jl. Majapahit no. 62, Mataram, NTB, Indonesia [email protected] ABSTRACT Nowadays, un-renewable energy is decreasing. To anticipate this situation, is needed some effort to dig the alternative energy resources. One of alternative energy is solar energy. This energy is cheap, abundantly and free of pollutant. The problem occurs in how to use solar energy is due to its lower efficiency. Many researches have been done to improve the efficiency. Therefore, many types of collectors have been discovered. The cheapest collector is bare tube flat plate collector respectively. This collector is simple in construction, easy to be maintained, but lower efficiency. To increase this collector efficiency should add the reflector. Reflector in this case can collect the sun radiation and reflect it to the absorber. Therefore, the absorber can receive a lot of sun radiation. This paper explains that research on the bare tube collector with and without reflector was done. Absorber is made of blacken aluminum pipes, 20 mm in diameter, and 2900 mm in length. The cover of collector is made of commercial glass of 3 mm thickness, 22 mm width, and 2900 mm length. Total collector dimension is 55 mm x 2950 mm. There are two reflectors mounted on its both sides (right and left of absorber, parallel to the length of collector). The result of the research indicates that no significance in temperatures difference between collector using reflector and without reflector. On the other hand, useful energy of collector using reflector is greater then that of without reflector. Keyword: Energy, Useful Energy, Collector, reflector, absorber, and efficiency.

ORYZA Volume II no. 4, January 2004