Construction and performance of an assisted solar distiller

The design and construction of a new type of assisted solar distiller is presented. The device consists of a basin-type distiller, with the peculiarity that the basin liner is extended as an integrated solar collector accumulator with quite simple characteristics, recently developed at the National University of San Luis (Argentina). The covering is easy to remove for cleansing, and an improvement of the design for future tasks is being considered. The new distiller was compared with a common basin-type distiller and a commonplace basin-type distiller coupled with a flat solar collector. Daytime, nocturnal, weekly and hourly measurements showed that the daily production of the new assisted solar distiller always surpassed that of the basin-type distiller by approximately 70%, and that of the basin-type distiller coupled with a flat solar collector by approximately 20%. Results of 2 years of measuring are presented.

Fig. 7. Comparison of the DICS and the BD. Quantity of pure water produced in the week vs. the intensity of the solar radiation on the distiller during the same period of time. The straight lines correspond to constant efficiency at values of 10% and 50%. Fig. 8. Comparison of the DICS and the BDC. Quantity of pure water produced per area unit of the tray in the day vs. the intensity of the solar radiation on the distiller during the same period of time. The straight lines correspond to constant efficiency at values of 10% and 50%.