Technical and economical assessment of energy-saving roof and wall construction in Thailand

This research assessed the economic impact and construction costs of buildings with solar chimneys in Thailand, called bioclimatic houses. A solar chimney uses a combination of air gaps between walls and roof, and effective ventilation to lower the indoor temperature and reduce the need for air conditioning. The study looked at small, medium, and large size houses and studied construction techniques, the materials used, and the time needed to build a residential structure. It also polled owners of bioclimatic houses about their satisfaction. The techniques employed in building bioclimatic houses take slightly longer and cost slightly more than those used in standard construction. However, the study found that bioclimatic houses use approximately 10–20% less electricity for air conditioning require less maintenance and have a payback period of 6–13 years, depending on the size. The lifespan of insulation material used in standard houses is about 20–25 years, while the lifespan of a solar chimney is about 40–50 years. The solar chimney concept can also be applied to standard houses with minimal renovation. The study found that this type of house was suitable for use in Thailand, and with increased consumer awareness, had a high probability for adoption.     

The Modified Trombe Wall: A simple ventilation means and an efficient insulating material

This paper discusses the feasibility of reducing heat transferred into houses (insulation effect) and inducing natural ventilation by using a modified Trombe wall (MTW) under ambient conditions in Bangkok. It consists of a masonry wall, air gap and a gypsum wall which are common construction materials. It was found that the MTW with 2 m² of surface area, 14 cm air gap and dark in colour induced the highest natural ventilation rate, about 20–90 m³.h^?1. The light colour of the wall induced the lowest rate, but was still significant for the ventilation of houses. With such air flow rates, there is little potential to induce sufficient ventilation to achieve thermal comfort of the house, however, the proposed configuration of the MTW should be recommended for constructing new houses, mainly, because of its high insulation effect.     

Ethyl alcohol distillation in a basin solar still

Prediction of alcohol distillation in a solar still with a horizontal evaporating surface and an inclined condensing surface was carried out, based on the model modified by Spalding [Convective Mass Transfer. Edward Arnold, 1963] and Kiatsiriroat et al. [Energy, 1986, 11, 881–886]. With the temperatures measured at the evaporating and condensing surfaces, including the concentration of alcohol in the liquid at the evaporating surface, the mass fluxes of concentrated ethanol, pure alcohol and water distillate yielded from the unit could be estimated. The predicted results agreed well with those of the experiments.     

Thermal comfort standards for air conditioned buildings in hot and humid Thailand considering additional factors of acclimatization and education level

This paper presents the result of a large thermal comfort survey conducted using 1520 Thai volunteers from different climatic regions of Thailand. The survey was conducted using different types of air-conditioned buildings from the private and public sectors.Apart from common thermal comfort factors such as air dry bulb temperature, relative humidity and air velocity, two non-quantifiable factors were considered. These are the acclimatization to the use of air conditioner at home and the education level, i.e., post graduate, graduate and scholar. A general database for thermal comfort studies in Thailand was created, and different thermal comfort standards were developed for the three climatic regions of Thailand. Twenty six degree Celsius and 50–60% relative humidity could be used as a comfortable environment condition for the whole country. The data was then used to generalize an earlier concept we developed for setting thermal comfort standard using data from non air-conditioned buildings.     

Thailand climatic zones

This research was aimed to classify the climatic conditions of different locations in Thailand into zones of relatively similar ambient conditions. This classification is extremely useful to the building design for a wide range of objectives such as energy conservation, residential thermal comfort, outdoor design conditions, etc.The data of 18 years of ambient air temperature and relative humidity recorded by the Meteorological Department of Thailand from the 73 observation stations in the kingdom were studied and analyzed by a simple statistical methodology. To this end, the significant level defined as the number of days in a class interval divided by the total number of days of occurrence was used. Thus, only data with more than or equal to 2.5% significant level values were used to develop the climatic zones of Thailand map.Two maps are proposed: the first displays three dry bulb temperature zones, named T1, T2 and T3 with the following interval ranges 12–38, 16–38 and 20–38°C, respectively. The second map displays four relative humidity zones, named H1, H2, H3 and H4 with the following interval ranges 30–100, 41–100, 50–100 and 59–100%. The frontiers of the zones were adjusted according to the provinces' delimitation. The zones coincide well with the existing geographical location and the seasonal variation demonstrating that a prediction made by the consideration of climatic conditions could be sufficient for conducting good studies and design.     

Development of a new solar thermal engine system for circulating water for aeration

This paper presents a numerical study about the performance of a Beta Stirling solar thermal engine system. This system is composed of a solar collector box connected to a regenerator hydraulic system and a transmitting power system. The objective of the system is to offer a new alternative to help solving stagnant water pollution in hot countries like Thailand by circulating water in canals, lakes, ponds etc. for aeration using solar energy.The purpose of this study is to determine the power output and actual heat transfer on the performance of the solar thermal engine. The solar thermal engine is analyzed using a mathematical model based on the first law of thermodynamics for processes with finite speed, with particular attention to the energy balance at the receiver. The result of calculations showed that the regenerator volume and phase angle must be chosen carefully to fulfill the requirement that total fluid mass in the system is constant and to obtain maximum power output throughout the day.     

Feasibility study of desiccant air-conditioning system in Thailand

The objective of this study was to conduct an experimental analysis to investigate the performance and energy saving of the well-known desiccant air-conditioning system in Thailand. The system was composed of a silica gel bed, a split type air-conditioner (1.5 ton refrigeration) installed in a room of volume 76.8 m³, air ducts and a blower. Its design allows us to adjust the percentages of return air, outdoor air and indoor air mixed to the air leaving the desiccant, and desiccant bed thickness as well. Tests were conducted on several days with relatively similar ambient conditions. Under the test conditions used here, a 5 cm bed thickness is recommended with a maximum adsorption rate of 473 g/h. The optimum percentages of air ratios are as follows: 15% outdoor air, 15% return air (mixed together at the desiccant bed inlet) and 70% of indoor air mixed to the dry air leaving the desiccant. The corresponding electricity saving was about 24%. As expected, simple economic analysis indicated that the desiccant air-conditioning is only viable for large cooling capacities and central air-conditioned buildings. The payback period is about 4 yr.     

Design and analysis of solar thermoelectric power generation system

This article reports on the design and performance analysis of a solar thermoelectric power generation plant (STEPG). The system considers both truncated compound parabolic collectors (CPCs) with a flat receiver and conventional flat-plate collectors, thermoelectric (TE) cooling and power generator modules and appropriate connecting pipes and control devices. The design tool uses TRNSYS IIsibat-15 program with a new component we developed for the TE modules. The main input data of the system are the specifications of TE module, the maximum hot side temperature of TE modules, and the desired power output. Examples of the design using truncated CPC and flat-plate collectors are reported and discussed for various slope angle and half-acceptance angle of CPC. To minimize system cost, seasonal adjustment of the slope angle between 0° and 30° was considered, which could give relatively high power output under Bangkok ambient condition. Two small-scale STEPGs were built. One of them uses electrical heater, whereas the other used a CPC with locally made aluminum foil reflector. Measured data showed reasonable agreement with the model outputs. TE cooling modules were found to be more appropriate. Therefore, the TRNSYS software and the developed TE component offer an extremely powerful tool for the design and performance analysis of STEPG plant.     

Bovine serum albumin-sugar conjugates through the maillard reaction: effects on interfacial behavior and emulsifying ability

Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was employed as a model protein emulsifier to conjugate with aldohexose (D-glucose (Glc) or D-allose (All)) and sugar fatty acid ester (6-O-octanoyl-D-glucose (GlcC8)) through the Maillard reaction. It was found during the reaction that rate of decrease of free amino groups in BSA was almost the same for the BSA-sugar mixtures whereas browning and protein aggregation developed in the following order: Glc < All < GlcC8. It was thought that the rate of degradation of the Amadori compound could have been influenced by the OH-group stereochemistry at the C3 position of aldohexose, while denaturation of BSA by GlcC8 enhanced the browning and protein aggregation. To understand the emulsifying ability of the BSA-sugar conjugates, hexadecane-water interfacial tension and the oil droplet size of emulsions prepared by homogenizing hexadecane and aqueous solution of the conjugates were examined. BSA-GlcC8 showed greater improvement in interfacial and emulsifying activity than did BSA-Glc and -All. However, no improvement in emulsion stability was observed for any of the BSA-sugar conjugates, suggesting the weakness of the film formed at the oil droplet interface.