Experimental investigation on the performance of aluminium soda can solar air heater

This paper presents the use of discarded soda cans in harnessing solar energy for heating of homes, preheating of air in industries and for agricultural drying purposes. Aluminum soda cans were used as the absorber plate of solar air heater and the performance was studied. The soda can air heaters (SCAHs) were designed and fabricated. The configurations of the system (active, passive and number of flow passes) and the mode that gave the best performance for a particular purpose were determined. The tests were carried out in rainy and dry seasons of the year which are the only seasons in the tropics. The SCAH was able to raise the air temperature through it to 128 degrees C in a four-pass mode active system. This result was achieved when the collector was tilted 21 degrees to the horizontal facing south. Other lower temperatures achieved are good for home heating and agricultural drying purposes. The results indicate that singlepass SCAH produces more useful energy and performs better when compared to four-pass SCAH in active mode. The results were consistent in all the modes and showed that in whichever mode and the season, the SCAH was able to establish a good temperature difference in the fluid.(c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.