Experimental Evaluation of an Innovative Non-Metallic Flat Plate Solar Collector

The present article deals with the concept of the non-metallic flat plate liquid solar collector and its evaluation. The innovative concept lies in the elimination of metal parts of the solar collector and their replacement by the foam glass block, which significantly reduces the energy and material demands of the production process. The evaluation of the collector took place in two phases, the first was focused on the numerical evaluation, which resulted in the compilation of a theoretical curve of the efficiency of the solar collector. The second phase was focused on verifying the basic functionality of the concept based on the results obtained from experimental tests of the collector, which confirmed the functionality of the concept and revealed several areas that will need to be addressed in the further development of the prototype.