27-08-2014, 03:16 PM
Energy generally considered as prime mover for social and economical development of a nation . Demand of energy is rising rapidly at an alarming rate with growing population industrialization, transportation , etc. However , continuous use of fossil fuels over a long time period resulted energy crisis , environmental threat and price rise . Global energy crisis and environmental threat become source of motivation for the recent growing interest in renewable energy sources among renewable sources . Among renewable energy sources , solar energy is the most dominating energy source due to large potential. Moreover, it is free, eco-friendly, safe and inexhaustible source of energy. The simplest method to utilize solar energy for heating application is to convert it into thermal energy by using solar collectors. Because of simple design and little maintaince , solar collectors are most widely used for various thermal applications like water heating and air heating. Thermal efficiency of solar water heater is generally considered poor because of their inherently low heat transfer