An experimental study on a modified design compact shallow solar pond

In this study a design of compact shallow solar pond modified from that of Kudish (Kudish and Wof, 1978) is studied experimentally. The difference between this design and that of Kudish is that the water depth is allowed to be changed from 2–15 cm and is not fixed as in the mentioned reference design. The thermal insulation of the cover is installed between the reflector and the inner surface of the wooden cover. In the design of the reference (Kudish and Wof, 1978), the insulation is fixed on the outer surface of the cover, where it will probably be damaged by water, wind, dust etc. Also in our design, the level of water in the bag is measured using a static pressure manometer. The tests were carried out both in winter and in summer whereas they have been done only in summer in the mentioned reference. The results show that the compact shallow solar pond can provide a suitable water temperature to be used for low and moderate temperature applications even in a cold winter and with 10 cm water depth.