Consider a flat-plate solar collector placed horizontally on the flat roof of a house. The collector is 5 ft wide and 15 ft long, and the average temperature of the exposed surface of the collector is 100°F. The emissivity of the exposed surface of the collector is 0.9. Determine the rate of heat loss from the collector by convection and radiation during a calm day when the ambient air temperature is 70°F and the effective sky temperature for radiation exchange is 50°F. Take the convection heat transfer coefficient on the exposed surface to be 2.5 Btu/h · ft2 · °F.
