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The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), working through a Task Force appointed from Technical Committee 6.7, Solar Energy Applications, has completed and is now ready to distribute Proposed Standard 93-P, "Method of Testing for Rating Solar Collectors Based on Thermal Performance". This document is based on an earlier draft prepared in 1974 by J. E. Hill and Tamami Kusuda of the National Bureau of Standards for the National Science Foundation which then was the Federal agency responsible for solar energy research. The Hill-Kusuda proposal was carefully reviewed by competent groups drawn from ASME, ASHRAE and the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) and a number of changes were made by the authors before their proposed test procedure was published in December, 1974 as NBSIR 74-635. This proposal has already been used widely and specifications are being written requiring that it be followed in testing collectors that are being offered for sale to government agencies. However, NBSIR 74-635 is not an officially adopted standard and it will undoubtedly be superceded by ASHRAE Proposed Standard 93-P which is the subject of the following paper. 93-P, prepared by a group of specialists drawn from universities, government agencies, private testing laboratories, manufacturers and users, provides for outdoor testing under the sun and indoor testing using a solar simulator. It also covers methods of determining collector time constants and incident angle modifiers. It is equally appropriate for use with concentrating and with flat plate collectors. It is anticipated that the new Standard will be issued early next year, following the usual review procedure, bearing the identifying number 93-77 to designate that it is the 93rd ASHRAE Standard and that its year of adoption is 1977.
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