Water heating system using concrete slab solar collector with phase change material: - a review

Keeping present scenario of energy crisis in mind we need to move towards renewable sources of energy in which solar energy is one form of available renewable energy on earth and it is environment friendly and free in nature. Hence we have to move towards the efficient utilization of solar energy. It has a main drawback as it is only available in day time or limited period of time, hence using phase change materials in different solar energy storage setup is a way to store solar energy and utilize that in day time as well as night also. In concrete slab solar collector, solar energy is absorbed and transferred into the medium, space and fluid for domestic as well as industrial heating applications. In this paper we would be doing a critical review of the water heating system using concrete slab solar collector with phase change material (PCM). Further various performance parameters and setbacks would be discussed pertaining to solar heating systems. (paper)