How Do Solar Vacuum Tubes Work

These usually consist of a heat pipe inside a vacuum sealed glass tube.

How do solar vacuum tubes work.

So how do solar vacuum tube collectors work. Evacuated tube collectors are made up of a single or multiple rows of parallel transparent glass tubes supported on a frame. A vacuum tube an electron tube valve british usage or tube north america is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied. The principle behind solar vacuum tubes is simple.

The outer layer of the solar tube is borosilicate glass which is very low in iron and allows 98 of light energy to pass through. Evacuated tube solar collectors operate in a different way from the collectors presented so far. With this technology sunlight enters a metallic tube through a clear covering protruding from your roof. The type known as a thermionic tube or thermionic valve uses the phenomenon of thermionic emission of electrons from a hot cathode and is used for a number of fundamental.

A solar vacuum tube works similar in design to a coffee thermos. So how do these two technologies work in solar water heating let s start with the solar vacuum tube or also known as evacuated tubes. A vacuum is needed to keep the electrodes from burning or oxidizing the same reason a vacuum is needed in a light bulb a light bulb is actually a single electrode tube. It consists of a two layers of glass with a vacuum in between the layers.

The vacuum also keeps the electrons in the tube from colliding with air molecules which would generate noise. The vacuum tube is made of borosilicate glass which is very low in iron and as such lets through more solar radiation than ordinary glass it is also very strong. A solar tube commonly referred to as a sun tunnel is a skylight alternative for channeling sunlight to a building s interior. Each individual tube varies in diameter from between 1 25mm to 3 75mm and between 5 1500mm to 8 2400mm in length depending upon the manufacturer.