Liquid Flat Plate Collector

Flat plate collector (FPC) is a device to collect solar energy and transform it into thermal energy (low grade energy) by using water as a working fluid. It is a heart of solar thermal devices which has many applications in medium temperature range \(( \cong 100\;^\circ {\text{C)}}\) from domestic to preheating to industrial sectors. The hot water available from flat plate collectors (FPC’s) can be also used to conserve the fossil fuel. The basic design parameters for flat plate collector (FPC), namely overall top \((U_{t} )\) , bottom \((U_{b} )\) , flat plate collector efficiency \((F^{\prime } )\) and mass flow rate factor/heat removal factor \((F_{R} )\) are required to study the performance of FPC. These parameters suggested by various researchers have been discussed in detail, and final conclusions have also been suggested for new researchers.