Solar Heater

The first water heater in the world was emerging in the US in 100 years before which was a tight and solarized water heater. In the end of the 1970s, there were approximately 3 million sets of solar heater in the world. Since the middle of the 1980s, the annual sales capacity of solar heater for industrial countries were around hundreds of thousands m², among which the US was about 150,000 m², the EC 750,000 m². But the development was unbalanced. Now the diffusion rate of solar heater in Israel hits 70%.

The first set of solar heater appeared in China in 1958. In the 1970s, a surge of development of solar energy was raising, which many prototype water heaters were developed and applied in small scale. In 1979, the production capacity was only 20,000 m² in China. In 1987, a copper and aluminum hybrid solar stripe production line was introduced from Canada. In the 1990s, all glass evacuated concentrator and heat-pipe and glass evacuated concentrator industry was established in China, making the promotion and applications of solar heater into a new stage. According to incomplete statistics, the sales capacity of solar heaters in China exceeded 500,000 m² in 1992, and accounted for 3.5 million m² in 1997, among which tight and solarized heater was 900,000 m², flat plate heater was 1.6 million m², and evacuated tubular heater was 1 million m². In the recent stage, the sales of evacuated tubular heater increased more sooner and the sales of flat plate heater tended to declining. Now, the sales amount of solar heater ranks the first position of the world.

In order to further expand the applications of solar heater, efforts should be made to the follow aspects: to integrate the solar heater with dwellings, to perfect the functions of solar heater, to raise its reliability and durability and to expand the applications on the agriculture and industrial production.