Residential Thermal Energy System From An Asphalt Solar Collector

Leonardo Lunkes Wagner, and Jorge Luis Palacios Felix

Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul, Campus Cerro Largo, Brazil

Abstract: The use of renewable energy sources is growing every day. The need to use alternative sources stems from a possible shortage of traditional energy sources. One of the most promising energy sources that has been widely used is the sun, which has an enormous potential for generating electricity through solar photovoltaic, and generating thermal energy through solar collectors. The sun as an energy source, captured by a solar collector, can be an alternative for water heating for residential use, which can totally or partially replace traditional heating systems, such as electric or combustion passage heaters, as well as showers electrical systems, which would act as complementary systems. Asphalt Solar Collectors (ASC) can be an alternative to this. ASC consists of an asphalt pavement, with copper pipes inserted into the bituminous layer, which when circulating a fluid, such as water, collects the thermal energy absorbed by the sun through the asphalt mass and transfers it to water, which can be used later for various purposes. The present work sought to demonstrate the main concepts of using ASC, as a thermal energy generation system for residential purposes, as well as explaining methods of assembly of the system. The assembly of the same occurs manually, where the reference used for the compaction of the collector was through the DNER 043 standard of 1995, which uses 75 blows for the compaction of cylindrical specimens, adapted to the needs of the collector. As a way of monitoring the system, an Arduino system was proposed with 4 temperature sensors, a flow sensor and a relay that controls the circulation pump, making the system autonomous.

Key words: solar collector, thermal energy, asphalt collector