- #36
sophiecentaur
Science Advisor
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These ideas are always worth playing with but, when you get down to it, it's the numbers that count. It would be necessary to compare the heat that gets to the cooling pipes with what you'd get from black pipes (plus other fancy additions) with what you can expect from your 'in behind' proposal. Then you'd need to look at the economics of installing a solar heat collection system (plumbing isn't cheap). Solar heat collectors work mainly on radiant energy from the Sun and they would be in the shade if behind PV panels. Afaik, thermal solar collectors are not usually a system of choice and PV seems is now the runaway favourite so I'd suggest that keeping them in the shade (albeit in contact with the PV panel backs) would disadvantage them. So I'd guess that any benefit would be marginal.solvejskovlund said:I've played with the idea of adding copper pipes on the back of PV panels, and add insulation on the back to keep the heat in.