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Big Fin™ Water Heater
Performance
You can tell that the system is working by feeling the lines between collector and tank when the sun is shining – the line leading from the collector to the top of the tank should be warmer than the line leading from the bottom of the tank to the collector.
The graph below shows the performance of a Big Fin collector as a
function of its water temperature during a clear December day in
Albuquerque in a greenhouse glazed with double skinned acrylic glazing.
(UV treated double skinned polycarbonate glazing works
nearly as well.)
Figure 8
The Big Fin collector is efficient at low temperatures but
inefficient at high temperatures. It is inefficient at high
temperatures because when the uninsulated fins grow very hot they lose
their heat to the greenhouse. Since the greenhouse uses the heat lost
by the collector, the total system is efficient.
