Design and modelling of a new patented thermal solar collector with high building integration

A new concept of flat plate solar collector is presented: its originality comes from its remarkable shape and from its integration into a rainwater gutter. The complete solar collector consists in several short modules connected serially. After a brief presentation of the building energy problem, the new patented solar collector is described and the two thermal experimentations are shown. A numerical model is developed in Matlab (R) environment using a finite difference model and an electrical analogy. At last, the thermal model is validated from experimental data under various meteorological situations. The adequacy of the model with the experimental data is shown for various temperatures inside the solar collector and for the water temperatures. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.