ARTICLE IN PRESS

Applied Energy xxx (2010) xxx–xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Design and fabrication of a cost effective solar air heater for Bangladesh
M.A. Wazed a,*, Y. Nukman a,1, M.T. Islam b,2
a
Department of Engineering Design and Manufacture, University of Malaya (UM), 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology (CUET), Chittagong 4349, Bangladesh

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this research, a solar air heater is designed, fabricated and its performance is assessed in the perspec-
Received 28 July 2009 tive of an emerging/developing country with a huge energy demand like Bangladesh. The winter season
Received in revised form 3 February 2010 (mid-November–mid-February) of the country characterizes by low temperatures, cool air blowing from
Accepted 8 February 2010
the west or northwest, clear sky and meager rainfall. Minimum temperature in the extreme northwest in
Available online xxxx
late December and early January sometimes reaches 3 °C and day length is about 10 h. The shortness of
winter days can be compensated by reducing the heat loss during long nights. The solar air heater is con-
Keywords:
structed to prevent as much heat loss as possible. In other words, the heating of air is accomplished by
Solar energy
Air heater
maximizing light gain and minimizing heat loss. It is observed that the fabricated solar air heater is work-
Bangladesh ing efficiently. The maximum room temperature and the temperature difference from ambient are
45.5 °C and 12.25 °C for forced circulation and 41.75 °C and 8.5 °C for natural circulation respectively.
The experimental outlet temperatures have been compared with that of theoretical values. Due to its
low-cost and simple technology, it is affordable in all aspects, viz. of cost, operation and maintenance
by the typical people of Bangladesh.
Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction plate temperature, resulting in higher heat loses to the ambient.

People have become increasingly concerned about the rapid
depletion and uncertainty in cost of fossil fuels. There is some fear
about the possible environmental and safety risks associated with
fossil fuels, such as global warming, greenhouse effect, sea level
rise, climatic change and acid rain precipitation. These concerns
have focused worldwide attention on the potential of harnessing
the Sun’s power in new and varied forms to meet society’s growing
energy needs and for saving conventional energy. Although the Sun
has been a major energy source throughout the ages, technological
advances in several fields of science and engineering now make it
possible to accelerate the use of solar energy to meet the world’s
expanding energy requirement.
A great deal of attention has been given to solar air-heating in
recent years. Among solar air-heaters, those using flat-plate collec-
tors are extensively used in low-temperature solar energy technol-
ogy over years, because they are relatively simple, easy to operate
and have low capital costs. The efficiency of these collectors in air
heating is low due to low convective heat transfer coefficients be-
tween absorber and the flowing air that increases the absorber
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +60 14 930 2473; fax: +60 3 7967 5330.
E-mail addresses: awazed@gmail.com (M.A. Wazed), nukman@um.edu.my (Y.
Nukman), tazul2003@yahoo.com (M.T. Islam).
1
Tel.: +60 12 937 3765; fax: +60 3 7967 5330.
2
Tel.: +880 1713 109888; fax: +880 31 714910.
Solar air heaters may be used for space heating, drying and paint
spraying operations [1,2]. The solar air heater occupies an impor-
tant place among solar heating systems because of minimal use
of materials, and the direct use of air as working substance reduces
the number of required system components [3].
In many industrial applications where recirculation of air is not
practical because of contamination, outside air is heated and used
directly, especially for supplying fresh air to hospitals. Further,
heating of ambient air is an ideal operation for a collector, as it
operates very close to ambient temperature. In addition to the
essential effects of free and forced convections [4–6], considerable
improvement in collector efficiency is also accessible to increase
the transfer area by adding fins [7,5] and to create the turbulence
inside the flow channel by using baffles [8], or corrugated surfaces
[9–11].
Recently, several designs of flat-plate air-heaters have been put
forwarded, constructed and tested [12,13]. Improvements to such
air-heaters have extensively concentrated in increasing the num-
ber of air passages [14], using selective glasses [15], contacting pat-
terns between air flow and absorber and forming variously shaped
absorbing surfaces [16–18]. Further attempts have also been made
on the use of absorbers with high porosity surfaces [19] or special
coatings, which behave as a selective surface with low diffusivity
constant for solar radiation [20].
There are also studies on improving the efficiencies of the solar
collectors. Evacuated tubes are used to reduce heat losses from the

0306-2619/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2010.02.014

Please cite this article in press as: Wazed MA et al. Design and fabrication of a cost effective solar air heater for Bangladesh. Appl Energy (2010),
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2010.02.014
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2 M.A. Wazed et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2010) xxx–xxx
Nomenclature
FR collector heat removal factor
Qu useful total energy gain
qu useful energy gain for a specific time
Ta ambient temperature
Tg glass surface temperature
Ti inlet temperature
T0 outlet temperature
Tr room temperature
TS collector surface temperature
Ub bottom heat loss coefficient
receiver. Sims [21] developed a solar energy receiver, which could
be used in a high concentration ratio compound parabolic reflector.
Here, the absorber is an evacuated transparent envelope with a so-
lar receiver made of extruded aluminum, through which passages
have been formed. Two-stage collectors can be used to boost the
concentration ratio of solar collectors. The laws of thermodynamics
limit the efficiency of a concentrating collector which can be ap-
proached with a two-stage system. In some cases, the efficiency
can be doubled [22]. Solomon et al. [23] have developed a model
of a flat-plate solar collection system. A theoretical model has been
developed to predict the thermal performance of double pass solar
air heater with porous media [24]. Yousef and Adam [25] have
investigated the effect of mass flow rate, flow channel depth and
collector length on the system thermal performance and pressure
drop through the collector with and without porous medium.
A comprehensive parametric study on the thermal performance
of cross-corrugated solar air collectors has been carried out by Lin
et al. [26]. The collector consists of a wavelike absorbing plate and
a wavelike bottom plate which is crosswise positioned to form the
air flow channel. Liu et al. [27] improved the thermal performance
of a solar air collector using v-groove absorber. A comparative
study of the thermal performances of cross-corrugated and
v-groove solar air collectors is conducted by Liu et al. [28]. The
study concludes that cross-corrugated collectors are superior to
v-groove ones for all the configurations and operating conditions
considered.
A conventional solar air heater is essentially a flat-plate collec-
tor with an absorber plate, a transparent cover system at the top
and insulation at the bottom and on the sides. The working fluid
is air, though the passage for its flow varies according to the type
of the air heater. Satcunanathan and Deonarine [29] have sug-
gested use of two pass solar air heater to reduce the heat loss.
Whillier [30] carried out experiments and analyze the conven-
tional air heater consists of an absorbing plate, a rear plate, insula-
tion below the rear plate, transparent cover on exposed side, and
the air flows between the absorbing plate and rear plate. Ranjan
et al. [31] refers to an air heater with flow above the absorber
which consists of an absorber plate with a transparent cover at
the top and insulation at the bottom. The cover and the plate pro-
vide the passage for the air. Solar radiation, after transmission
through the cover, is absorbed by the absorber plate. Sodha and
Bansalt [32] have studied an air heater with flow on both sides
of the absorber assuming that equal flow occurs both above and
below the absorber plate and the heat transfer coefficient between
the absorber plate and the air stream on either side is the same.
Malik and Buelow [33] have worked on air heater with finned ab-
sorber in order to improve the heat transfer from the plate to air
stream and hence the efficiency of the heater. Fins are added to
the rear side of the absorber. Hollands [34] studied the directional
selectivity, emittance and absorptance properties of Vee-corru-
Please cite this article in press as: Wazed MA et al. Design and fabrication of a cost effective solar air heater for Bangladesh. Appl Energy (2010),
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2010.02.014
Ue edge heat loss coefficient
UL overall heat loss coefficient
Ut top heat loss coefficient
V wind velocity, m/s
Greek letters
a absorptance
g efficiency
gated specular surfaces of air heater. The use of Vee-corrugated ab-
sorber in place of a flat absorber provides a large surface area for
heat transfer to the air stream. Löf et al. [35] was first developed
the overlapped glass plate air heater and used in his house in Col-
orado, USA. It combines the advantages of low pressure drop and
high efficiency with moderate temperature losses. It consists of a
series of overlapping parallel glass plates with each plate consist-
ing of two parts, a black part and a clear part. Gupta and Garg
[36] studied two types of matrix air heaters and observed an aver-
age rise of temperature of 20 °C at an efficiency of 50%. In one hea-
ter galvanized iron wire mesh as a matrix was employed while in
the second aluminum matrix was employed. In a matrix air heater
the air flows through the matrix, generally made of metal of regu-
lar or irregular shape, and the solar radiation is absorbed gradually
along the depth of the matrix. The flow of air can be from top to
bottom or from bottom to top. Lalude and Buchberg [37] proposed
the honeycomb porous bed air heater which consists of a specu-
larly reflecting rectangular honeycomb over a black porous absor-
ber to reduce convective and radiative losses. Satcunanathan [38]
has used a two pass solar air heater connected to a drying chamber.
The hot air passes through the crops immediately after it leaves
through the collector. Hence insulation is not required to be used
in the air heater. Khoukhi et al. [39] have studied the flat-plate so-
lar collector performance with coated and uncoated glass cover.
Elminir et al. [40] provided recommendations on how the collected
energy can be increased for solar flat-plate collector by varying the
tilt angle. Linear and quadratic sets of equations are proposed for
calculating the thermal efficiency of a flat-plate solar collector hav-
ing a single glass cover and an absorber by Yildiz and Gungor [41].
The devastating energy crisis and its future escalation in Ban-
gladesh can presume from some reported literatures. The electrical
energy crisis in the country has become such extent that the load-
shedding exceeds 4–5 h in a day [42]. There is a huge gap between
the current use energy and potential for generation. This gap is
compounded by the large need for investment in electricity gener-
ation capacity due to increasing demand for electrification [43].
Bangladesh Power System (BPS) can meet only 75% of the total de-
mand. Generation shortage forces BPS for massive load shading
hindering nation’s development activities [44]. Therefore, the pur-
pose of this study is to design and fabricate an efficient solar air
heater using locally available cheaper as well as lesser amount of
material and to analyze its performance.
2. Mathematical approach
The theoretical calculations are performed under the following
assumptions: the temperatures of the absorbing plate, bottom
plate and bulk fluids are functions of the flow direction only, and
both the glass cover and the fluids do not absorb radiant energy.
Further, except the glass cover, all parts of the outside surface of
 ARTICLE IN PRESS

M.A. Wazed et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2010) xxx–xxx 3

Qu h i
the solar air collector, as well as the flow channel, are well insu-
qu ¼ ¼ F R S  U L ðT i  T a Þ  3600  106
lated thermally. Ac
It is obvious that the overall heat loss coefficient (UL) is made up
The collector efficiency for that hour, g ¼ AQc IuT ¼ qITu and the day-
of top (Ut) bottom (Ub) and edge loss coefficient (Ue). P
q
long collector efficiency, gday ¼ P I u .
T
So; U L ¼ U t þ U b þ U e P
The total useful gain, Q u ¼ Ac  qu .
The top loss coefficient is given by
2 31 3. Design considerations

6 N1 17
Ut ¼ 4 n oe þ 5 Several designs for solar air heaters have been proposed and
C ðT p;m T a Þ hw discussed in literature. The designer and potential user of these
T p;m ðN 1 þf Þ
systems must consider a number of factors when comparing their
rðT p;m þ T a ÞðT 2p;m þ T 2a Þ merits. These can mainly be categorized as: (i) thermal perfor-
þ 2N 1 þf 1þ:133ep
ðep þ :00591N1 hw Þ1 þ eg  N1 mance, (ii) cost and (iii) lifetime, durability, maintenance and ease
of installation [45].
where N1 = number of glass covers; f ¼ ð1 þ :089hw  The design of the solar air heating systems for a particular appli-
0:1166hw ep Þð1 þ 0:07866N 1 Þ; e ¼ 0:43ð1  T100 Þ; b = collector tilt cation demands some factors to be considered. The different ele-
p;m
ments of this system are absorber plate, absorber coating, cover
(°); eg = emittance of glass (0.88); ep = emittance of plate; Ta = ambi-
plate or glazing and insulation. The design requirements for the ab-
ent temperature (K); Tp,m = mean plate temperature (K); V = velocity
sorber plate are operating temperature range, maximum stagnant
of wind (air) in m/s; Tsky = Sky temperature = 0.0552 T 1:5 = Ta  6;
a temperature, operating flow rate and cost. The coating should ab-
hw = wind heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 °C) = 2.8 + 3.0V; sorb maximum energy and emits the minimum. The primary func-
C = 520(1  0.000051b2) for 0° < b < 70° (for 70° < b < 90°, use tion of the cover plate or glazing is to minimize the heat losses,
b = 70°). convection and radiation, from the collector plate.

The bottom loss coefficient is given by U b ¼ kL b ; where k and L Insulation is an important factor playing a very significant role
are the thermal conductivity and thickness of insulation respec- in minimizing the heat losses from the lower surface of the collec-
ðkÞ Ae tor plate and from the lateral edges of the collector. The insulation
tively. The edge loss coefficient is given by U e ¼ L Aec ; where
Ae = perimeter  thickness of collector and Ac = collector area. So, material in a collector should have low thermal conductivity. The
the losses based on inlet temperature is UL (Ti  Ta)  3600 author has used a two pass solar air heater for heating the room.
 106 MJ/m2. Fig. 1 shows the flow chart of operations of the system.
Overall heat loss coefficient, collector efficiency and flow factors
are used to calculate the outlet temperature. Overall heat loss coef- 4. Components of the system
ficient is assumed to be constant along the flow direction. The col-
lector efficiency factor is essentially a constant for any design and A flat-plate collector (two pass) consists of cover plate of glass,
fluid-flow rate. It is denoted by F 0 and mainly dependent on the battens to hold the glass in place, air as heat exchanger medium,
geometry of the collector surface. Collector efficiency factor is de- metal plate painted black as absorber and insulation. Insulation
fined as is placed below the absorber plate to reduce the heat loss. A table

actual useful energy collected

F0 ¼ :
useful energy collected if the entire absorber surface is at the local fluid temperature

shaped as a room has used as room compartment and consists of a

door for entering and taking data. Equipments needed nails, bat-
The collector flow factor is a function of the single variable, the tens, glue, tape and others. Fig. 2 is showing the schematic drawing
dimensionless collector capacitance rate
_ p
mC
: It can be obtained of the solar air heater.
Ac U L F 0
"  # Main features of the system includes saves energy that is used
0 Ac U L F

_
mC
from F 00 ¼ FFR0 ¼ Ac U pF 0 1  e
_ P
mC
where for heating, uses renewable energy, low-cost heating system, sim-
L
ple to install, no moving parts, no auxiliary is needed and easy to
use. When there is no solar radiation, we can cover the collector

collector heat removal factor; F R

actual useful energy collected
¼ ¼ F 0 F 00
useful energy collected if the entire absorber surface is at the temperature of the fluid entering the collector

with foam. The heat storage medium like water drum, rock, etc.
The useful energy gain for a specified hour, per unit area of col- can also be used. The dimension of the collector is
lector is 101.6  76.2 cm2, absorber plate is 91.44  62.23 cm2 and inside

Please cite this article in press as: Wazed MA et al. Design and fabrication of a cost effective solar air heater for Bangladesh. Appl Energy (2010),
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 ARTICLE IN PRESS
4 M.A. Wazed et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2010) xxx–xxx
room volume is 784063.7 cm3. Fig. 3a and b are showing photo-
graphs of the system respectively.
5. Data collection
The author has set up the solar air heater on the roof of EME
building of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology
(CUET), a public engineering university situated in the port city
of Bangladesh, faced to south. The collector is tilted at an angle
of 35° and all the outlet air passages are sealed. In the two pass col-
lector, cool air enters the collector at the bottom opening and gets
heated by taking heat from the absorber surface by convection heat
Fig. 1. Flowchart of operations of the system.
Fig. 2. Drawing of the model type solar air heater from side.
Please cite this article in press as: Wazed MA et al. Design and fabrication of a cost effective solar air heater for Bangladesh. Appl Energy (2010),
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2010.02.014
transfer. Then the hot air comes out by the upper channel. Six dif-
ferent temperatures are observed for every half an hour by k-type
thermocouple and thermometer. The temperatures are inlet air,
outlet air, absorber surface, ambient, glass surface and room tem-
perature. The cover is kept clean to get best results. Air flow rate is
calculated from its velocity measured by anemometer (AlnorÒ
Model RVA801). The parameters have been measured both for nat-
ural draft and for forced draft. In case of natural circulation, the
flow of air is due to the density difference. The hot air has lower
density than cold air, for this reason hot air goes upward naturally
and cold takes the position. In forced draft, a small fan forces out
the hot air. The air velocity is obtained as 0.03 m/s in case of nat-
Fig. 3. Photograph of solar air heater: (a) front view and (b) left view side.
Fig. 4. Average values of hourly solar radiation and ambient temperatures.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS

M.A. Wazed et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2010) xxx–xxx 5

ural draft. In contrary, the inlet and outlet air velocity are 0.9 m/s
and 0.3 m/s, respectively, for force draft. The average outside wind
velocity is observed as 2.5 m/s.

6. Results and discussions

The solar radiance is strongly dependant on location and local

weather. Solar radiance measurements consist of global and/or di-
rect radiation measurements taken periodically throughout the
day. The measurements are taken using a pyranometer (Manufac-
turer: TBCL, Model: 8-48, black and white) for measuring global
radiation and a pyrheliometer (Manufacturer: TBCL, Model: NIP)
for measuring direct radiation. Typical hourly values of solar radi-
ation and ambient temperatures between 7 am and 5 pm are
shown in Fig. 4. The solar radiance varies throughout the day from
0 kW/m2 at night to a maximum of about 1 kW/m2. Direct and glo-
bal solar radiation is at their highest values at noon (at about
12.30 pm) as expected. The global radiation slightly decreases as
the time passes through the afternoon.
The proposed collector is tested according to the ASHARAE 93-
97 standard before the performance measurements are conducted.
It is observed that the heated air stream is intermittently ob-
structed at the head of the absorber during free convection mea-
surements. The air started to flow when the pressure increased
enough to overcome the air mass and friction resistance in the
downstream section. This oscillating behavior of the heated air
necessitated taking average air speed in all the efficiency computa-
tions. The relative error in assuming constant airflow rate may be
considered to be small due to the low differences between succes-
sive temperature recordings.
We have collected the values of different parameters and calcu-
lations are made. Then graphs have been plotted to show the rela-
tionships/disparities in different parameters. Fig. 5a–d views the
differences in the ambient and the room temperatures in the prag-
matic days. It is pellucid from the figures that the differences are
significant.
Fig. 5a–d shows that the temperatures increases first and then
decreases. The maximum temperatures are obtained at around
mid noon. In forced circulation, the maximum outlet air tempera-
ture obtained is 55.0 °C and the maximum difference from ambient
is 21.75 °C. The values are, respectively, 54.75 °C and 19.75 °C for
natural circulation. The highest room temperatures 45.5 °C and
41.75 °C and the maximum difference from ambient 12.25 °C and
8.5 °C are observed for forced and natural circulation in order.
We can notice that in natural circulation, the difference between
inlet and outlet temperatures is higher as the air needs greater
time to circulate than forced circulation. The difference between
outlet and surface temperatures is also higher. We obtained the
room temperature is higher in forced circulation, because the total
volume of air circulates more times in this case. The difference be-
tween ambient and room temperatures is also higher here.
Temperature in all cases maintains nearly a linear relationship;
if one increases then the other also increases. The certain fluctua-
tions are due to decrease in solar radiation because of clouds at
the time of measurement. It increases roughly till mid noon and
then decreases (Fig. 5). From the data collected and after necessary
calculation as well as from graphs plotted (Fig. 5) the author would
like to summarize the different parameters of the solar air heater in
Table 1. Maximum efficiency in case of forced circulation is 62.21%
and for natural circulation 24.96%. The efficiency is higher in case
Fig. 5. Temperature variance caused by using solar air heater on (a) 24-August for
of forced circulation than in natural. It may because of the flow rate forced draft; (b) 26-August for natural draft; (c) 27-August for forced draft and (d)
is higher in the first one and the air needs less time to circulate. The 28-August for natural draft.
day long efficiency is lower in natural circulation. In both the case,
the efficiencies are lower because we have calculated with extra- The differences between measured and theoretical outlet tem-
terrestrial solar radiation. peratures (both for the natural and forced draft) are shown in

Please cite this article in press as: Wazed MA et al. Design and fabrication of a cost effective solar air heater for Bangladesh. Appl Energy (2010),
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Table 1 The fabricated solar air heater is quite efficient in trapping

Different measured parameters of the solar air heater. heat. As the construction is very simple and locally available
24- 26- 27- 28- low-cost materials are used in construction, it could be manufac-
August August August August tured in any workshop. Due to its low-cost and simple technol-
Draft Forced Natural Forced Natural ogy, it is affordable in respect to cost, operation and
Inlet temperature 37.25 36.5 39.5 38.75 maintenance by huge number of middle and lower middle class
Outlet temperature 46.25 52.0 55.0 54.75 people of Bangladesh.
Difference between inlet and outlet 9.0 15.5 16.5 16.0
temperature
The air temperature obtain in the test room is noteworthy. In
Absorber surface temperature 58.75 67.0 62.5 67.75 forced circulation, the maximum room temperature obtained was
Difference between surface and 12.5 17.0 7.5 13.0 45.5 °C and the maximum difference from ambient was 12.25 °C.
outlet temperature In case of natural circulation, the maximum room temperature ob-
Ambient temperature 31.75 33.25 33.5 35
tained was 41.75 °C and the maximum difference from ambient
Room temperature 40.75 41.75 45.5 41.75
Difference between ambient and 14.75 18.75 21.75 19.75 was 8.5 °C.
outlet temperatures The room temperature is higher in forced circulation, because
Difference between ambient and 9.25 8.5 12.25 6.75 the total volume of air circulates for more times in this case. The
room temperatures difference between ambient and room temperatures is also higher
Maximum efficiency (%) 62.2 24.8 59.9 24.9
here.
Daily average efficiency (%) 58.9 23.2 56.5 24.0
The efficiency is higher in case of forced circulation than that of
natural.
The measured out temperature of the air heater is similar to
that of the theoretical values in quality.

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Fig. 6. Comparison of theoretical and measured outlet temperatures: (a) natural
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Fig. 6. The disparities are less in the case of forced draft then the
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flow rate. This variation is higher in case of natural circulation.
We have taken average values of air velocity for inside and outside
the room. This may has influences on such variations.
7. Conclusions
From the collected data, tables, graphs, figures in relation with
the analysis and discussions this research investigation can be con-
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