hello everyone new here

[Angelic Rentz]

hi! i bought a flat plate solar collector and i was thinking what does 31,000 BTUs means to you??:amazed:

[Joe Blake]

Hi,

Welcome to the board.

You might be better posting your query in the thread on solar heating.

Regards,

Joe

[Rob Beckers]

Angelic, welcome to Green Power Talk!

I assume the notation is "Btu/hr", so that would mean the panel produces 31,000 Btu per hour at a given solar intensity and outside temperature. I don't know what the solar thermal world uses, but if it's the same as the solar photovoltaic world, it would be with the sun shining at 1000 Watt per square meter (full sun in our area, with a blue sky), and 25 Centigrade as the outside temperature.

Btu stands for British thermal Unit, and it is a measure of energy. From a residential heating perspective 31,000 Btu/hr would be a pretty good chunk of heat!

-RoB-