Irradiance characteristic of a small-scale solar simulator for testing thermal collectors

This paper describes the development of a small-scale solar simulator for research and educational purposes. The main goal is to provide a uniform and stable distribution of irradiation from a set of four floodlight halogen lamps, over a targeted area of 40x40 cm2. The floodlights are placed perpendicularly to each other, on the top end of a light tube. Two types of halogen lamps were characterised and the total irradiation of the solar simulator was measured over a 5x5 grid. The results showed that the two arrangements of lamps are able to achieve a level of 1000 W/m2 on the 40x40 cm2 targeted area, but the non-uniformity is unsatisfactory. In order to reach a non-uniformity level of 10% using the proposed lamps arrangements, the targeted area should be reduced to 31x31 cm2.