I’ve heard that “evacuated tube” solar collectors are much more efficient than flat plate collectors. Are evacuated tubes better for solar water heating?
We do not recommend evacuated tube solar collector systems for high wind zones such as Florida. While these systems can be more efficient than flat plate solar collectors during overcast weather conditions, an evacuated tube collector system resembles a bank of flourescant light bulbs on your roof. Naturally, an evacuated tube cylinder will have minimal wind resistance, which is good. But it will have very poor impact resistance if struck by a flying object, which is bad. Modern flat plate collectors have tempered glass cover plates that can sustain direct strikes by such wind-driven objects as, for example, a piece of 2×4 lumber. Evacuated tube collectors are very popular in Europe, where their high efficiency offsets more frequent overcast weather conditions and lower average air temperatures than Florida. On the other hand, Europe does not experience hurricanes.
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