Performance of a coupled cooling system with earth-to-air heat exchanger and solar chimney

Buildings represent nearly 40 percent of total energy use in the U.S. and about 50 percent of this energy is used for heating, ventilating, and cooling the space. Conventional heating and cooling systems are having a great impact on security of energy supply and greenhouse gas emissions. Unlike conventional approach, this paper investigates an innovative passive air conditioning system coupling earth-to-air heat exchangers (EAHEs) with solar collector enhanced solar chimneys. By simultaneously utilizing geothermal and solar energy, the system can achieve great energy savings within the building sector and reduce the peak electrical demand in the summer. Experiments were conducted in a test facility in summer to evaluate the performance of such a system. During the test period, the solar chimney drove up to 0.28 m³/s (1000 m³/h) outdoor air into the space. The EAHE provided a maximum 3308 W total cooling capacity during the day time. As a 100 percent outdoor air system, the coupled system maximum cooling capacity was 2582 W that almost covered the building design cooling load. The cooling capacities reached their peak during the day time when the solar radiation intensity was strong. The results show that the coupled system can maintain the indoor thermal environmental comfort conditions at a favorable range that complies with ASHRAE standard for thermal comfort. The findings in this research provide the foundation for design and application of the coupled system.     

Experimental performance of a thermoelectric ceiling cooling panel

An experiment has been performed to investigate the cooling performance of a thermoelectric ceiling cooling panel (TE‐CCP). The TE‐CCP was composed of 36 TE modules. The cold side of the TE modules was fixed to an aluminum ceiling panel to cool a test chamber of 4.5 m³ volume, while a copper heat exchanger with circulating cooling water at the hot side of the TE modules was used for heat release. Tests were conducted using various system parameters. It was found that the cooling performance of the system depended on the electrical supply, cooling water temperature and flow rate through the heat exchanger. A suitable condition occurred at 1.5 A of current flow with a corresponding cooling capacity of 289.4 W which gives the coefficient of performance (COP) of 0.75 with an average indoor temperature of 27°C. Using thermal comfort test data in literature for small air movements under radiant cooling ceilings, results from the experiments show that thermal comfort could be obtained with the TE‐CCP system. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of solar desiccant cooling system for an institutional building in subtropical Queensland,Australia

Institutional buildings contain different types of functional spaces which require different types of heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. In addition, institutional buildings should be designed to maintain an optimal indoor comfort condition with minimal energy consumption and minimal negative environmental impact. Recently there has been a significant interest in implementing desiccant cooling technologies within institutional buildings. Solar desiccant cooling systems are reliable in performance, environmentally friendly and capable of improving indoor air quality at a lower cost. In this study, a solar desiccant cooling system for an institutional building in subtropical Queensland (Australia) is assessed using TRNSYS 16 software. This system has been designed and installed at the Rockhampton campus of Central Queensland University. The system's technical performance, economic analysis, energy savings, and avoided gas emission are quantified in reference to a conventional HVAC system under the influence of Rockhampton's typical meteorological year. The technical and economic parameters that are used to assess the system's viability are: coefficient of performance (COP), solar fraction, life cycle analysis, payback period, present worth factor and the avoided gas emission. Results showed that, the installed cooling system at Central Queensland University which consists of 10 m² of solar collectors and a 0.400 m³ of hot water storage tank, achieved a 0.7 COP and 22% of solar fraction during the cooling season. These values can be boosted to 1.2 COP and 69% respectively if 20 m² of evacuated tube collector's area and 1.5 m³ of solar hot water storage volume are installed.     

被动式太阳房的降温研究

通风的目的是保证室内良好的空气品质,采用自然通风方式是生态建筑设计的重要内容,自然通风形成的室内热环境有利于人体舒适性.太阳能烟囱管能强化房间的自然通风,可以有效地改善室内的空气品质和室内热环境,但尚未达到舒适的温度.     

Performance evaluation of a radiant floor cooling system integrated with dehumidified ventilation

The radiant floor cooling system can be used as an alternative to all-air cooling systems, using the existing Ondol system (a radiant floor heating system) in Korea to save energy and maintain indoor thermal comfort. Unfortunately, a radiant floor cooling system may cause condensation on the floor surface under hot and humid conditions during the cooling season. In addition, the radiant floor system does not respond quickly to internal load changes due to the thermal storage effect of the concrete mass, which is usually present in radiant floor cooling systems.This study proposes a radiant floor cooling system integrated with dehumidified ventilation, which cools and dehumidifies the outdoor air entering through the cooling coil in the ventilator by lowering the dew-point temperature to prevent condensation on the floor surface. Furthermore, outdoor reset control was used to modulate the temperature of chilled water supplied to the radiant floor, and indoor temperature feedback control was then used to respond to the internal load changes.To evaluate the performance of the radiant floor cooling system integrated with dehumidified ventilation, both a physical experiment in a laboratory setting and TRNSYS simulation for an apartment in Korea have been conducted. As a result, it was found that the proposed system was not only able to solve the problem of condensation on a floor surface but also to control the indoor thermal environment within the acceptable range of comfort. Furthermore, the proposed system improved the responsiveness to internal load changes.     

Passive cooling of buildings by using integrated earth to air heat exchanger and solar chimney

Passive cooling is being employed as a low-energy consuming technique to remove undesirable interior heat from a building in the hot seasons. There are numerous ways to promote this cooling technique, and in the present study the use of solar chimney (SC) together with earth to air heat exchanger (EAHE) is introduced. Consequently, theoretical analyses have been conducted in order to investigate the cooling and ventilation in a solar house through combined solar chimney and underground air channel. The finding shows that the solar chimney can be perfectly used to power the underground cooling system during the daytime, without any need to electricity. Moreover, this system with a proper design may also provide a thermally comfortable indoor environment for a large number of hours in the scorching summer days. Based on the required indoor thermal comfort conditions, the numbers of required SCs and EAHEs are calculated and some features of such a system is presented. It is widely expected that the proposed concept is useful enough to be incorporated with a stand-alone or a cluster of buildings especially in some favorable climates.     

多孔太阳墙式太阳能房间与普通房间热舒适性分析

通过对某多孔太阳墙式太阳能房间和普通房间的数值模拟,分析太阳墙板内空气的受热过程及流动情况,同时系统地比较两种建筑在工作区范围内的热舒适性。与普通采暖房间相比,在有多孔太阳墙送风的情况下,可将室外空气由-3℃加热到21℃,空气流动速度由0.1m/s提高到0.31m/s,提供44.6m3/h的新风量,一定程度上解决了冬季开窗换气所引起的室内热负荷及采暖负荷,论证了多孔太阳墙可使室内热舒适性明显增强的结论。     

A solar cooling project for hot and humid climates

This paper presents a solar house built in a southern city of China where the summer is long, hot and humid. The house was designed appropriately for the climate and was constructed with local building materials where possible. A multifunctional solar system was used and a method for indoor ventilation was proposed. The design included double walls and a triple roof in order to remove heat by ventilation of the building envelope. The external walls were clad with unglazed bricks to allow evaporative cooling. The house has been monitored since completion and more than one year of data is available. Analysis of the monitored data shows that the solar techniques proposed in this design are effective in a hot and humid climate. Effective ventilation strategies for the improvement of thermal comfort are also discussed.     

Effect of solar absorptivity and emissivity of exterior surfaces on the thermal performance of a building

The effects of the solar absorptivity and the thermal emissivity of exterior building surfaces on the indoor air temperature of a one room building are evaluated in terms of the discomfort index. The thermal performance of the building has been investigated for four different climates prevalent in India, namely, composite (New Delhi), hot and dry (Jodhpur), cold and humid (Srinagar), and cold and dry (Leh). The results confirm the common-sense view that the building surface should have low solar absorptivity and high thermal emissivity in hot climates and high solar absorptivity and low thermal emissivity in cold climates for indoor thermal comfort conditions.     

Experimental comparison of a sunspace and a water hybrid solar device using the LESO test facility

The LESO is an experimental facility, designed to include up to nine different solar facades, under study for one or two years. The building is occupied by the solar research team itself. By monitoring the facility, one can determine the influence that the inhabitants have on the thermal performance of the solar devices. Among six facades, a sunspace and a water hybrid solar system have been investigated. An on-site comparison of their performances has been carried out. It was shown that user influence on the systems' thermal performance indicators is strongly linked to their thermal and visual comfort. Some design rules specific to the considered solar devices have been pointed out. It appears, that both good thermal design and adaptability of the solar system to comfort requirements must be equally considered to reach optimal energy performances.     

Performance evaluation of passive cooling in office buildings based on uncertainty and sensitivity analysis

Natural night ventilation is an interesting passive cooling method in moderate climates. Driven by wind and stack generated pressures, it cools down the exposed building structure at night, in which the heat of the previous day is accumulated. The performance of natural night ventilation highly depends on the external weather conditions and especially on the outdoor temperature. An increase of this outdoor temperature is noticed over the last century and the IPCC predicts an additional rise to the end of this century. A methodology is needed to evaluate the reliable operation of the indoor climate of buildings in case of warmer and uncertain summer conditions. The uncertainty on the climate and on other design data can be very important in the decision process of a building project.The aim of this research is to develop a methodology to predict the performance of natural night ventilation using building energy simulation taking into account the uncertainties in the input. The performance evaluation of natural night ventilation is based on uncertainty and sensitivity analysis.The results of the uncertainty analysis showed that thermal comfort in a single office cooled with single-sided night ventilation had the largest uncertainty. The uncertainties on thermal comfort in case of passive stack and cross ventilation were substantially smaller. However, since wind, as the main driving force for cross ventilation, is highly variable, the cross ventilation strategy required larger louvre areas than the stack ventilation strategy to achieve a similar performance. The differences in uncertainty between the orientations were small.Sensitivity analysis was used to determine the most dominant set of input parameters causing the uncertainty on thermal comfort. The internal heat gains, solar heat gain coefficient of the sunblinds, internal convective heat transfer coefficient, thermophysical properties related to thermal mass, set-point temperatures controlling the natural night ventilation, the discharge coefficient C_d of the night ventilation opening and the wind pressure coefficients C_p were identified to have the largest impact on the uncertainty of thermal comfort.The impact of the warming climate on the uncertainty of thermal comfort was determined. The uncertainty on thermal comfort appeared to increase significantly when a weather data set with recurrence time of 10 years (warm weather) was applied in the transient simulations in stead of a standard weather data set. Natural night ventilation, designed for normal weather conditions, was clearly not able to ensure a high probability of good thermal comfort in warm weather. To ensure a high probability of good thermal comfort and to reduce the performance uncertainty in a warming climate, natural night ventilation has to be combined with additional measures. Different measures were analysed, based on the results of the sensitivity analysis. All the measures were shown to significantly decrease the uncertainty of thermal comfort in warm weather. The study showed the importance to carry out simulations with a warm weather data set together with the analysis under typical conditions. This approach allows to gain a better understanding of the performance of a natural night ventilation design, and to optimize the design to a robust solution.     

Simulation of an adsorption solar cooling system

A more realistic theoretical simulation model for a tubular solar adsorption refrigerating system using activated carbon-methanol (AC/M) pair has been introduced. The mathematical model represents the heat and mass transfer inside the adsorption bed, the condenser, and the evaporator. The simulation technique takes into account the variations of ambient temperature and solar radiation along the day. Furthermore, the local pressure, and local thermal conductivity variations in space and time inside the tubular reactor are investigated as well. A C++ computer program is written to solve the proposed numerical model using the finite difference method. The developed program covers the operations of all the system components along the cycle time. The performance of the tubular reactor, the condenser, and the evaporator has been discussed. Time allocation chart and switching operations for the solar refrigeration system processes are illustrated as well. The case studied has a 1 m² surface area solar flat plate collector integrated with a 20 stainless steel tubes containing the AC/M pair and each tube has a 5 cm outer diameter. In addition, the condenser pressure is set to 54.2 kpa. It has been found that, the solar coefficient of performance and the specific cooling power of the system are 0.211 and 2.326 respectively. In addition, the pressure distribution inside the adsorption bed has been found nearly uniform and varying only with time. Furthermore, the AC/M thermal conductivity is shown to be constant in both space and time.     

Testing method for thermal performance based rating of various solar dryer designs

A generalized methodology is developed for thermal testing of various solar dryer designs operated for natural and forced air flow conditions. The steady state mathematical model based on heat balance concept of solar dryer without load is applied to identify the dimensionless parameter called no-load performance index (NLPI). Laboratory models of direct (cabinet), indirect and mixed mode solar dryer are designed and constructed to perform steady state thermal tests for natural and forced air circulation. The dryers with no-load are operated with air passage between absorber plate and glass cover for the range of 300–800 W/m² and 0.009–0.026 kg/s of absorbed thermal energy and air mass flow rate respectively under indoor simulation conditions. The present study reveals that the forced convection operated dryer provides higher NLPI in contrast to that of natural convection. The comparative performance analysis of dryers indicates that the mixed mode dryer exhibits maximum value of NLPI followed by indirect and cabinet ones for both natural and forced air circulation. It is also found that for any dryer operating at given air flow condition, almost invariable NLPI values have been obtained for a wide range of absorbed energy and ambient air temperature data, thus facilitating performance comparison between different dryer designs on equitable basis. The results of statistical analysis showing low standard errors of mean further demonstrate good consistency in NLPI values for various dryer designs. The uncertainty in NLPI due to error in measurement of several parameters by instruments ranges from 0.79 to 1.96% for various dryer designs operated under different conditions.     

Effect of modelling solar radiation on the cooling performance of radiant floors

When modelling buildings, solar radiation has a large impact on the thermal balance because it usually heats the rooms. In radiant systems that are used for heating and cooling buildings, solar radiation has a large influence both on indoor temperatures and on the efficiency of the radiant system.Many analyses have already been carried out in order to study how beam and diffuse radiation can be distributed in a room. One of the most difficult issues, when modelling room thermal balance, is how to simulate the solar radiation when it enters the room, which in turn depends on the reflectance characteristics of the surface finishing elements.In this study, four different radiation models have been applied in order to solve an overall detailed, dynamic thermal balance in a room with pipes embedded in the floor. Two of the models are detailed; the other two consider the radiation entering the room to be diffuse radiation. As for the behaviour of the impinging solar radiation on the covering materials in a room, measurements have been carried out to determine the reflectance coefficients, which will be used in simulations for characteristic materials used in buildings.Results of the simulations show that a simplified model, which considers solar radiation as uniformly distributed in a room, cannot be used for a detailed comfort analysis; however, when looking at the cooling output of a radiant floor system at the design stage, a simplified model can predict energy transfer to a certain level of accuracy. Moreover, results coming from combined measurements and simulations show that the reflectance characteristic of the covering materials does not affect the cooling capacity of the radiant floor systems, since the most important parameter for cooling performance is the thermal conductivity of the covering layer.     

Novel heating and cooling concept employing rainwater cisterns and thermo-active building systems for a residential building

This paper introduces and evaluates a novel heating and cooling concept employing thermo-active building systems and environmental energy, harnessed from two 11-m³ rainwater cisterns for a 285-m² residential building in passive house standard in Germany. The building strives for a significantly reduced primary energy use with carefully coordinated measures, such as high quality building envelope, by means of vacuum insulated panels, supply and exhaust air system with heat recovery, reduced solar heat gains (solar shading), and the integration of thermal solar collectors and photovoltaic in the plant system. On this premise, a comprehensive long-term monitoring in high time-resolution was carried out for the building for two years with an accompanying commissioning of the building performance. Measurements comprise the energy use for heating, cooling, and ventilation, as well as the auxiliary equipment, the performance of the environmental heat source and sink (rainwater cistern), thermal comfort, and local climatic site conditions.     

An optimum performance of flat-type solar air heater with porous absorber

This investigation is concerned with the design and performance of a flat-type solar air heater in which air flows perpendicularly from the transparent cover to a porous absorber plate. The design phase involved a stability analysis to determine the critical distance (maximum allowable distance) between the absober and transparent cover, for suppressing convection currents, at various environmental and operating conditions. These results are useful to designers of solar collectors of the proposed type. In addition, the thermal performance of this solar heater at its optimum design conditions was computed for a wide range of system parameters illustrating the contribution of conduction and radiative modes of heat transfer. The results indicate that the best operating efficiency can be obtained when running the collector with a mass flow rate of m > 40 kg/m².h. Furthermore, the collector thermal performance is superior than channel type solar air heaters operating under similar conditions and much simpler than honeycomb porous bed solar air heaters.     

Numerical investigation of a two-stage air-cooled absorption refrigeration system for solar cooling: Cycle analysis and absorption cooling performances

Two-stage air-cooled ammonia–water absorption refrigeration system could make good use of low-grade solar thermal energy to produce cooling effect. The system simulation results show that thermal COP is 0.34 and electrical COP is 26 under a typical summer condition with 85 °C hot water supplied from solar collector. System performances under variable working conditions are also analyzed. Circular finned tube bundles are selected to build the air-cooled equipment. The condenser should be arranged in the front to get an optimum system performance. The mathematical model of the two-stage air-cooled absorber considering simultaneous heat and mass transfer processes is developed. Low pressure absorber should be arranged in front of middle pressure absorber to minimize the absorption length. Configuration of the air-cooled equipment is suggested for a 5 kW cooling capacity system. Temperature and concentration profiles along the finned tube length show that mass transfer resistance mainly exists in liquid phase while heat transfer resistance mainly exists in cooling air side. The impacts on system refrigeration capacities related to absorption behaviors under variable working conditions are also investigated. Both cycle analysis and absorption performances show that two-stage air-cooled ammonia–water absorption chiller is technically feasible in practical solar cooling applications.     

Optimal roof structure with multilayer cooling function materials for building energy saving

Both cool roof and phase change thermal storage are promising technologies in decreasing building energy consumption. Combining these two technologies is likely to further enhance the thermal comfort of the building as well as reduce air condition loads. In this paper, the cooling performance and energy-saving effects of four types of roof (normal roof, phase change material [PCM] roof, cool roof, and cool PCM roof [cool roof coupled with PCM]) were investigated under a simulated sunlight. Experimental results indicate that compared with normal roof, the other three roofs are able to narrow the indoor temperature fluctuation and decrease the heat flow entering into the room. Among them, cool PCM roof gave the best energy-saving effect that can lower the indoor temperature and heat entering into rooms by 6.6°C and 52.9%, respectively. Besides, the PCM location, PCM thickness, and insulation thickness exerted great impacts on the cooling performance of the roof. Placing the PCM on the internal layer beneath the extruded polystyrene (XPS) insulation board can make the indoor temperature 1.2°C lower than that on the middle layer. Although thicker PCM panels or insulation boards can provide a better thermal insulation, 5 mm in PCM thickness and 20 mm in insulation thickness are enough to guarantee the indoor temperature of cool PCM roof system at a comfortable range (22°C-28°C) for a whole day. These findings will give guidance in designing buildings with a light and compact roof structure to decrease energy consumption and improve comfort level.     

Will energy regulations in the Gulf States make buildings more comfortable – A scoping study of residential buildings

Building envelope impacts upon energy consumption and indoor environment. The relationship between envelope components and indoor environment has become increasingly important, especially with the new emphasis on visual comfort, thermal comfort and indoor air quality. This paper examines the interaction between occupant thermal comfort and envelope component regulations in the Gulf States. The country chosen for this study is the Kingdom of Bahrain, the smallest country in the Gulf region. Simulation results and comparative studies were employed to investigate the impact of the current envelope component regulations on the internal environment. The paper focuses on residential buildings and concludes that the envelope component regulations contribute positively to the internal thermal performance. Although these envelope components are not generally the primary elements that impact upon internal thermal comfort there are circumstances when the components become very warm and occupants positioned close to them will experience discomfort. This paper shows that the thermal insulation regulation makes a small impact on thermal comfort, whereas the window regulation, particularly glazing, is more influential and that for most window areas, solar impacts are generally large.