Objective:

To measure the instantaneous efficiency of a flat plate solar collector, using an experimental arrangement configured in virtual instrumentation.

Methodology:

The instantaneous efficiency of the solar collector is obtained from an experimental setup developed with the virtual instrumentation architecture, which uses a solar collector, Compac FieldPoint modules of the National Istruments firm and data acquisition systems, designed from the LabVIEW graphic programming language, to measure solar radiation global, ambient temperature and system fluid temperature.

Results:

Efficiency measures of a flat plate solar collector are reported, depending on the reduced temperature of the system, on the time of day and on global solar radiation for days characterized by the measurement time, and in accordance with the global solar radiation flow, that affects the collector.

Conclusions:

The use of a virtual instrument and devices of high speed and sensitivity for the acquisition of data allows measuring its operation parameters and the instantaneous efficiency of a solar collector of flat plate, obtaining a value of 36.6%.

Financing:

The Research and Scientific Development Center of the Francisco José de Caldas District University financed the LabView software, the Compac FieldPoint modules and the solar radiation sensor, within the framework of the development of the research project called "prototype development and testing of signal measuring station that provides information on environmental variables", which was developed by the FMAES group.