Published Paper Details:

As the globe seeks low-carbon energy, solar electricity is the most plentiful resource. This century's problem is harnessing energy. Photovoltaics, solar heating and cooling, and CSP are common solar energy uses. Different technologies, proportions of the solar resource, site requirements, and production capacities distinguish these solar energy systems. Every solar energy application needs accurate solar resource data. Small rooftop installations and huge solar power plants are affected. Because huge installations might cost over $1 billion, solar resource knowledge is very important. The best fuel supply quality and dependability information must be accessible before such a project. To predict the daily and annual performance of a proposed solar heating and cooling system or power plant, this project needs reliable data about the solar resource available at specific locations, including historic trends with seasonal, daily, hourly, and (preferably) subhourly variability. Without this data, manufacturers and dealers cannot provide reliable financial analysis. sun energy system performance assessments need sun radiation data. The National Solar Radiation data source in India includes stored hourly, daily, and monthly data for various capital cities and districts for 60 years. Since simulating systems for 60 years is computationally intensive, it is easier to use typical data in performance analyses by simulating a computer program for as many years to any location, any time, any day, and any month and year of the country only by knowing its latitude and longitude. Flat Plate Collectors are the easiest and most common way to convert solar energy into heat. Solar radiation hits the darkened collector absorber surface via clear cover plates and is absorbed as thermal energy. Air or liquid movement removes thermal energy from the absorber, delivering heat for use or storage. A C-language computer program has been developed to predict the performance of a flat plate collector that stores heat in water called a Solar Water Heater. The program takes into account beam radiation, diffuse radiation, global radiation, total solar flux, declination, incident angle, outlet fluid temperature, and instantaneous efficiency. Simulation of flat plate collector for solar water heaters produces rapid results and optimizes cost and efficiency. This research simulates a flat plate collector for a solar water heater using a C-language software designed to forecast solar collector system performance based on location and time of day. Program calculates instantaneous beam and diffuse radiations for the collector's location, number of days (n value) for any date in the year, angle of incidence of beam radiation on the collector, total solar flux incident on the collector, transmissivity - absorbtivity product, incident flux absorbed by the absorber plate, collector heat removal factor, overall loss coefficient, water outlet temperature, and instantaneous. The modeling tool estimates solar collector system performance and can size solar hot water systems for varied applications. The study includes parametric investigation of the effect of selective surfaces, number of covers, spacing, collector tilt, fluid inlet temperature, incident solar flux, and dust on top covers on solar water heater performance and validation of computational results with experimental results from literature and Chickballapur. The customized comparison approach may correlate the generalized program with solar collector performance for solar water heaters at any location without tests, ensuring precision and correctness.