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MacRobert Award
2000 Finalist
Thermomax for the innovation of the Evacuated Heat Pipe and Direct Flow Solar Hot Water Systems.
The team members are Dr Vahid Tabatabai, Trevor Griffiths and Sharokh Sabba
[News Release]
Thermomax is a world leader in the manufacture of premium quality, evacuated solar collectors which convert direct and diffused solar radiation into thermal energy.
For the last 20 years Thermomax have applied advanced research and state-of-the-art technology to solar water heating applications and they have managed to produce a solar hot water system suited to the Northern European climate.
Thermomax's method of protecting the heart of the solar collector in a vacuum also makes the system suitable for regions suffering from high humidity or pollution.
The solar collectors capture and transfer the solar energy through a collector plate and then heat-pipe in an evacuated glass tube, to a highly insulated manifold heat exchanger.
 The selective coating of the semiconductor layer of the collector plate converts the maximum amount of solar radiation into heat with very low radiation losses.
These solar collectors are designed for continued high performance even when the sun is low and will even operate efficiently at temperatures well below freezing.
The efficiency of the system is greatly enhanced by the vacuum in the glass tube as it insulates the solar collector, suppressing heat loss and also protecting the absorber plate and heat-pipe from adverse external conditions.
Energy efficiency is not just the goal of the end product but also for the manufacturing process with the amount of energy consumed in manufacturing a Thermomax tube being less than 1% of the energy it will deliver during its useful life. Customers achieve considerable savings in their fuel costs as well as contributing towards a reduction in CO2 emissions. The amount of pollution reduction achieved by installing a Thermomax domestic solar water heating system is equivalent to taking one car off the road!
Thermomax currently sell their products in over 40 countries with Western Europe, Far East and the US as main markets. They have received many awards for their designs including being awarded Millennium Product status.
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