Upon completion of assembly, we spent several days troubleshooting and testing our system. During this process, we recorded the rate at which heat was transferred from the solar collector to the reservoir tank. Below are graphs of the temperature of the reservoir tank as it is heated by the solar collector.
 

    The tests in figure HT1 show the effects of the solar collector on the water in the reservoir. The reservoir was filled with 40 gallons of water. The water was maintained in the reservoir tank without circulation into the main tank to allow accurate data. The first trial was started when the water was at 66 degrees Fahrenheit; and the second trial was started on a different day, when the water was 88 degrees Fahrenheit. The graph shows the temperature change vs. time. It can be seen that at certain times the slope of the line is greater than at other times. This is due changes in the cloud cover throughout the day. When the sun was at full force, the water temperature increased as much as 12 degrees in 15 minutes. When the clouds were covering the sun, the temperature increase decreased to as low as 1 degree in 15 minutes. These changes can be seen more dramatically in figure HT2. Overall, the solar collector works very well delivering a great deal of energy to the water and providing adequate heating.