AIM Solar Panel – Product Description

[Note: These Panels Are Under Beta Test And Are Not Available For Sale At This Time]

AIM Controls’ solar panels are a high efficiency, thermal water heating design providing hot water for indoor households, swimming pools, or commercial processes.  The panels are very reasonably priced, have an indefinite lifetime, and are constructed from materials that are environmentally benign and plentiful.

The panels are a flat plate collector design, elegantly simplified and integrated.   It is typically manufactured as a flat panel 45 inches wide by 103 inches long.   The panel is made from a flat aluminum pipe that serves as both the heat absorber and water pipe.  Each flat pipe overlaps with the next for structural support and maximum thermal absorption area, so a panel assembly can be customized for a variety of installations.  Panels can range in size from 6” wide to 60” wide and from 24” long to 120” long. The ASP assembly only requires small gussets across the back for structural rigidity and easy mounting in most locations.  

The flat panel surface is covered by a black absorption coating that is environmentally benign.   Over this is placed a sheet of thin tempered glass.  The back of the panel is insulated. The result is a panel design that is elegant, thin, and very efficient.

The ASP surface is coated with a natural, environmentally benign material to improve absorption.  The coating is applied by brush or sprayer in a water base.  If necessary for field service, the coating process is easily performed on-site.  There is no synthetic material to be replaced or discarded as the product ages.

A manifold on each end of the panel controls water flow.  In the panels shown in the pictures, the bottom manifold has an internal center divider: water is directed up one side of the panel, where it flows into a top manifold that has no divider, routing the water back down the other half of the panel and into the collecting portion of the lower manifold.  The panel can accommodates custom water flow schematics simply by adding dividers in the manifold(s).  Water can be sent in a serpentine manner through each pipe consecutively, or up through all the pipes and out the other end of all of the pipes.  The manifolds are connected to external piping through standard *NPT pipe threads in the manifold, and are available in different NPT sizes.  Water flow pathways are easily modified as needed for various pressures and flow rates at different sites.