ENHANCING THERMAL COMFORT OF RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS THROUGH DUAL FUNCTIONAL PASSIVE SYSTEM (SOLAR-WALL)

ABSTRACT

Thermal comfort has a great effect on occupants’ productivity and general well-being. Since people spend 80–90% of their time indoors, developing the tools and methods that help in enhancing the thermal comfort for buildings are worth investigating.

Previous studies have proved that using passive systems like Trombe walls and solar chimneys significantly enhanced thermal comfort in inside spaces despite that each system has a specific purpose within a specific climate condition. Hence, the main purpose of this study is to design and configure a new dual functional passive system, called a solar wall.

The new system combines the Trombe wall and solar chimney, and it can cool or heat based on building needs. Simulation software, DesignBuilder, has been used to configure the Solar Wall and study its impact on indoor operative temperature for the base case. Using the new system, the simulation results were compared with those obtained in the base case and analyzed to determine the most efficient system design parameters and implementation method. The case that gave the best results for solar wall configuration was triple glazed glass and 0.1 cm copper as an absorber (case 11). The results show that using four units (case D) achieves longer thermal comfort levels: 15 to 24 thermal hours during winter (compared to five hours maximum) and 10 to 19 comfort hours in summer (compared to zero).