Solar Energy, Vol.201, 63-74, 2020
Experimental investigation of building heating and ventilation by using Trombe wall coupled with renewable energy system under semi-arid climate conditions
An experimental work on building heating, ventilation and power production by using Trombe wall (TW) combined with renewable energy systems is investigated. The renewable systems consist of geothermal air tube (GT) or/and solar chimney (SC) including photovoltaic panel (PV) installed at the room top surface. The PV is installed inside the chimney and its performance is compared with identical PV outside. The Trombe wall is installed on the southern wall of the room. The study is performed on a building room located in New Borge Alarab city, Alexandria, Egypt. The GT is used to heat the outside air before it enters the room which is extracted inside the room by using the TW and solar chimney. The Trombe wall, solar chimney, and PVs are fixed to face the south at an angle 30 degrees or 45 degrees with the horizontal. The findings indicate that the studied renewable energy systems change daily the room air naturally from 26 to 58 times and increase the inside room temperature to a maximum value of about 14 degrees C and. Installing PV inside the SC reduces the daily air ventilation and energy gain of the room by about 19% and 17.8%, respectively for naturally TW + GT + SC with PV system. A combination system of TW + GT + SC with PV provides the maximum heating and ventilation performance of the building room while a combination of TW + GT has the minimum performance. The maximum power obtained for the PV inside the chimney in case of natural system represents 75.1% of the PV power outside.
Keywords:Building;Trombe wall;Solar chimney;Geothermal air tube;Photovoltaic;Heating and ventilation