Abstract
The present study assesses the feasibility of exploiting single- and double-basin solar stills in our daily lives. An investigation is carried out to determine the thermal performance and economic viability of making use of solar stills in water desalination. The climatic conditions of Tehran (35 degree 44'N, 51 degree 30'E) are considered to assess the feasibility of the basins. Transient energy and mass balance equations are utilized for modeling the thermal performance. The equations are solved by using fourth-order Runge-Kutta method in FORTRAN. The daily productivities of single- and double-basin solar stills are found to be 5.22 kg/m super(2) and 7.73 kg/m super(2), respectively, while the effect of different water masses (20-100 kg) on the productivity of each system was found to be optimum at 20 kg/m super(2). The results are compared with experimental work performed under different climatic conditions to examine the validity of the feasibility of basins in general. A life cycle cost analysis performed for Tehran, yields that single- and double-basin solar stills have savings-to-investment ratios of 4.2 and 4.8, respectively, indicating that they are economically feasible.