Experimental and numerical study on a novel low temperature facade solar thermal collector to decrease the heating demands: A south-north pipe-embedded closed-water-loop system

摘要

Recently, more and more research is being conducted on thermo-activated building walls with the use of circulating water or other fluids for the aim of decreasing and shifting the heating and/or cooling loads. In this context, we present a novel concept of the active embedded-pipe envelope systems. The system consists of an active closed-loop-water-pipes embedded in the building exterior walls to harvest and utilize the solar energy gain on the south wall exterior surface to decrease or offset the heat loss through the north wall and enhance thermal comfort. During non-cloudy winter days, a significant amount of solar energy hitting the south (insulated) facade is not transferred to the inside environment.