Solar Vacuum Tubes Or Flat Panel Collectors? Which One To Choose

The job of solar heating collector is very simple – it need to sit in the sun to absorb the heat and transfer it to where you require it. To accomplish this task efficiently, solar heating collectors must soak up and retain a large quantity of sunlight daily. There’re 2 main solar heating technologies that are in used today - the Solar Flat Panels, and Solar Evacuated Tubes. Both these technologies have been time tested and therefore, there has been always a debate over which technology is best.

Being a leading manufacturer of solar heating products, Northern Lights has designed, tested and supplied both flat panels & sola vacuum tubes across the globe. Henceforth, we believe we can guide you to the best solar heating collector.

Performance:

Usually, the performance of evacuated tubes is much better in colder or cloudier conditions than flat panel collectors. This is due to the vacuum in the glass tube, which lets tube collectors to preserve a high proportion of collected heat. Solar evacuated tube collectors work excellently in freezing conditions where flat panel collectors won’t work.

However, in regions where there is heavy snowfall, evacuated tube collectors won’t leak required heat from the collector, and henceforth won’t melt frost and snow as fast as flan panels do.

People who need really hot water, for purposes like car wash, manufacturing, Laundromats, etc. note that flat panels won’t dependably perform above 130-140F. On the other hand evacuated tube collectors can generate hot water up to 200F.

Because of evacuated tube collectors’ self-tracking design, they are capable collecting heat quite uniformly all through the day. Conversely, flat panels have to collect almost all of their heat in the middle part of the day.

Installation:

Solar vacuum tubes are usually less sensitive to sun angle & orientation than plat panel collectors. Their spherical design lets sunlight to pass at a favourable angle all through the day – from sunrise to dusk.

On the other hand, flat panel collectors are more sensitive to sun angle, and may need the use of racking system to make the most of their production.

When not sure about which technology to execute, talk to your local dealer or get in touch with Northern Lights directly. Being a leading supplier of Vacuum tube solar water heaters and solar flat panel collectors, we would be happy to check out both technologies and recommend which is best fit for your particular application.