Solar hot water systems made by Apricus were used by seven of the twenty teams that competed in this year’s recent Solar Decathlon in Washington, DC, the company reports.
The Solar Decathlon hot water contest required participating teams to draw 58 litres of water in 10 minutes at a temperature of 43 degrees Celsius several times throughout the day. This contest compiled data from which to rank teams in terms of their houses’ solar thermal capabilities.
Of the seven teams that used an Apricus solar hot water system to complete this task, three placed in the top ten for hot water capability, including: Rice University, University of Missouri, and Cornell University. Other teams using Apricus’ product included: University of Arizona, Iowa State University, University of Kentucky, and Ohio State University.
The Apricus solar collector is a device that absorbs thermal energy from the sun and converts it into usable heat using evacuated tubes rather than the traditional flat plate collector system. Apricus states its while its collectors can be used in temperatures as low as -30oC, performance is greatly reduced in such extreme conditions; but good heat output is still achieved in mild sub-zero temperatures.
Evacuated tube systems tend to be more efficient in capturing light as they have a greater surface area exposed to the sun. Evacuated tube solar hot water collectors require a smaller roof area than flat plate systems and if a tube should be broken, it can be easily and cheaply replaced.
Apricus systems are available in Australia and the company is the only distributor of evacuated tube technology in the Australian marketplace that owns its own manufacturing facility.
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