Utilization of iodine in the enhancement of the efficiency of flat plate collectors

Solar water heaters employing flat plate collectors are presently about the most popular ways to use solar energy for domestic purposes. Because the thermal part of the system is not, in general, large enough to permit the system to stand alone, some kind of supplemental backup energy must be injected into it. This article describes one way of increasing the efficiency of the ordinary domestic water heater by making use of the thermal energy generated by the instantaneous reversible photodissociation of the iodine molecule.