EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON DOUBLE-PASS SOLAR AIR HEATER WITH INTERNAL HEAT STORAGE

Solar energy is one of the crucial energy sources for agricultural drying, industrial process heat and space heating requirements, that is renewable as well as pollution-free. In drying applications and heating of the building spaces, solar energy has an important role to play, as it provides an enormous amount of heat energy where the air is the final receiver of the heat energy. Flat plate collectors are good enough for heating air, but the technology and applications of solar air collectors have not been so developed as a liquid solar collector. As solar energy is inconsistent and nature dependent, more often there is a mismatch between the solar thermal energy availability and requirement. This drawback could be addressed to an extent with the help of thermal energy storage systems combined with solar air heaters. The solar air heaters typically have single-pass type airflow, having flow over or under or both over and under the absorber plate. Double- pass type solar collectors will have flow over the absorber plate for the first pass and returns under the absorber plate for the second pass or vice-versa. Key Words: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), Energy-efficient techniques, Clustering algorithm, Routing protocol, Load balancing.