David Faiman presented a module temperature model (Faiman 2008) based on simple heat transfer concepts. The model form is:
where
is module temperature (°C)
is ambient air temperature (°C)
is the irradiance incident on the plane of the module or array (
)
is the constant heat transfer component (
)
is the convective heat transfer component (
)
is wind speed (m/s)
In his paper, Faiman measured irradiance, wind speed, and module temperatures on seven different types of modules and fit the data to values of and
. Note that all modules had front glass covers and Tedlar® backs.
- Values of
varied from 23.5 to 26.5 with a combined fit = 25
- Values of
varied from 6.25 to 7.68 with a combined fit = 6.84