New Supply-Air Solar Wall with Thermal Storage Designed to Preheat Fresh Air: Development of a Numerical Model Adapted to Building Energy Simulation

Abstract

Façades built with integrated passive solar systems hold great promise for improving the energy performance of buildings and achieving indoor comfort conditions. Among these techniques, solar air preheating systems with different configurations have proven their ability to reduce the energy consumption of buildings during the heating season. In this study, we propose a ventilated solar wall (VSW) with a thermal storage unit intended for preheating ventilation air. The final aim of this study is to determine the thermal performance of the studied VSW over a significant time period (during the heating season) under various climatic conditions when it is integrated into the building envelope. Therefore, for this purpose, a simplified model was developed to be coupled to a building energy simulation (BES) code. The results from the detailed steady-state 2D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model show that the thermal efficiency of the VSW ranged from 55% to 70% as the air mass flow rate increased from 0.008 kg/s to 0.02 kg/s for a surface of 2.15 m2. These results were used to evaluate the convective heat transfer coefficients in the two air cavities and to validate the simplified model. The results indicate good agreement between the two models.