SOLAR ENERGY Utilization

ENGS-44 Sustainable Design Benoit Cushman-Roisin 18 January 2011

Recapitulation 1. We know how much energy the sun provides as a function of - latitude of location - orientation of surface (window, roof) - month of year - hour of day - cloudiness 2. We know the energy need of the building as a function of - R-values of walls, windows, roof, etc. - respective surfaces of walls, roof, etc. - air infiltration - how cold it is outside Heat Loss (HL) Degree-Days

Solar Heat Gain Factors (SHGFs) Cloudiness factor

The question now is: How much of the need (part 2) can we meet with the sun (part 1)?

In building design, there are basically three passive solar techniques:

1. Direct gain (= let the sun enter through windows) 2. Trombe wall (= enhance direct gain) 3. Greenhouse (= enhanced trombe wall)

Calculations Recipe for Direct Gain 1. Determine square-feet of glazing (windows) on East (Ae), South (As), West (Aw) and North (AN) sides of the building. 2. Select a month and pick the values SHGFe, SHGFs, SHGFw, and SHGFN. 3. Multiply and add for each side of the building: Solar heat gain per day of the month = SHG = SGHFe x Ae + SHGFs x As + SHGFw x Aw + SHGFN x AN 4. Correct for partial reflection on window (88% for dual-pane windows). 5. Correct for cloudiness (% sun). 6. Multiply by number of days in the month. 7. Repeat for other months of heating season and add numbers.

Example: Salt-box house in Lebanon, NH

Near 40oN SHGFs, in BTUs/(ft2.day), and cloudiness factors, in %
Heating month September October November December January February March April May East 906 712 508 427 514 733 946 1105 1200 South 1344 1582 1596 1550 1626 1642 1388 976 716 West 906 712 508 427 514 733 946 1105 1200 North 238 176 126 104 122 168 228 308 430 Cloudiness 57% 55% 46% 46% 46% 55% 56% 54% 57%

Need to multiply by 0.88 to account for reflection at window surface

Climatological degree-days for Lebanon, NH

September October November 207 558 858 1,269 1,450 1,223 1,038 653 308

House structure
East Window areas External walls Roof 64 South 162 West 35 North 10 Total 271 ft2 1,898 ft2 1,520 ft2

R-value
1.92 21.37 31.97

U = 1/R
0.5208 0.0468 0.0313

December January February March April

Add infiltration: I = 4,220 BTUs/(day.oF) HL = 6,660 + 4,220 = 10,880 BTUs/(day.oF)

May

Compare energy demand to solar supply, month after month: September Demand is HL x Degree-days = (10,880 BTUs/day.oF) x (207 oF.days) = 2.252 x 106 BTUs Supply is (SHGFeastAeast + )(0.88 window reflection)(57% cloudiness) = (906 x 64 + 1344 x 162 + 906 x 35 + 238 x 10)(0.88)(0.57) = 155,397 BTUs/day There are 30 days in September 155,397 x 30 = 4.662 x 106 BTUs Good news: Supply is more than enough to cover the demand ! Similar calculations for the remaining heating months of the year. Results are:
Energy demand September October November December January February March April May 2.252 6.071 9.335 13.807 15.776 13.306 11.293 7.105 3.351 Solar supply 4.662 4.929 3.766 3.695 3.959 4.611 4.901 3.857 3.718 Difference + 2.410 -1.142 - 5.569 - 10.112 - 11.817 - 8.695 - 6.392 - 3.248 +0.367 (Values in million BTUs for each month)

Solar energy is almost never enough, but it makes a significant contribution.

In the winter months, when the solar energy input fails to meet the building demand, additional heat must be supplied from a furnace or other source (solar panels on roof? geothermal heat?) Alternatively, one can decrease the demand by increasing the insulation of the building, for example, by drawing curtains at night.

or One can be clever and get more free energy from the sun !

For example, what happens if one increases the window area by 20% on the southern side of the building? This does two things, one negative and one positive: 1. It increases the heat loss because the R-value of a window is less than that of a wall (R value drops from 21.97 to 1.92): HL increases from 10,822 to 11,192 BTUs/(day . oF) October demand increases from 6.039 to 6.245 million BTUs 2. It increases the capture of solar energy: October solar gain increases from 4.929 to 5.698 million BTUs The October gap is reduced from 1.1093 to 0.5465 million BTUs a reduction of 49%.

There is a better way to get more sun without more conductive heat loss

Except for a small amount of reflection, most of the solar radiation goes through glass because glass is almost perfectly transparent to radiation in the visible spectrum. (We can see through windows!) This radiation is not absorbed by the air in the room but rather by the opaque surfaces it falls upon, like the floor or walls. The receiving surface heats up and, in steady state, emits back the same amount of heat, mostly through convection. Heat is lost through conductive loss through the window (small R-value).

But since glazing creates a relatively large conductive heat loss, consider placing a thick piece of better insulating material just inside

Absorber-storage wall (Trombe wall):

Improved Trombe wall:

With vent holes through the storage wall to bring some of the heat from the greenhouse into the living space.

A variation

Absorber wall combined with greenhouse:

Heat storage:

Thermal mass inside a building is adequate for smoothing day-night temperature variations.
x

Heat content = c

temperature (oF)

heat mass capacity oF) (BTUs/lb (lb)

For smoothing seasonal temperature fluctuations (i.e., storing summer heat for use in the following winter), one needs to resort to a geothermal system.

In buildings, we deal with volumes more than masses:

M =

volume (ft3)

density (lb/ft3)

Heat content = H

where H = c x = specific heat per volume, in BTUs/(ft3 x oF)

Specific heat H of various substances and materials On a volume basis: Air Water Concrete Concrete block Sheetrock Plywood Particle board Asphalt roofing shingle 0.0182 62.44 30.1 28.8 13.0 9.86 15.5 21.0 extremely low very high quite high

values in BTUs/(ft3 x oF)

When the sun shines on a wall or floor:

d H V T Q A dt dT Q A HV dt
where

Q I cos Q I sin V Ad

for vertical wall for horizontal floor

Heat received from sun:

A floor I sin
Heat flowing from floor to room:

A floorU (T floor Troom )

Heat through walls, etc.:

HL (Troom Toutside )
Heat budgets for floor and room air:

H floorV floor H airVroom

dT floor dt

A floor I sin A floorU (T floor Troom )

dTroom A floorU (T floor Troom ) HL (Troom Toutside ) dt

Heat exchange between floor and room: Warm air created next to floor rises and convects through the room:

Q AUT A floorU (T floor Troom )

(Newtons Law of convection)

U due to convection
If the heated surface is a vertical wall:

U 0.20 T

0.33

Q AUT AwallU (Twall Troom )

U 0.31 T
0.33

In these expressions, T is in oF and U in BTUs/(ft2 x hour x oF).

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Specific heat of air is almost nil, and we can assume steady state for the room budget:

0 A floorU (T floor Troom ) HL (Troom Toutside )

of which the solution is:
= instant adaptation of air temperature to a weighted average between floor and outside temperatures

Troom

A floorUT floor HL Toutside A floorU HL HL T floor HL Toutside A floorU HL

T floor Troom

The heat budget for the floor then becomes:

H floorV floor

dT floor dt

A floor I sin
gain from sun

A floorU HL A floorU HL

(T floor Toutside )

thermal inertia

loss to the outside

Average indoor temperature is adequate but swings too much from day to night. Not enough thermal mass

Room temperature

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Indoor temperature well smoothed between day and night but not high enough in average Not enough solar intake; need to increase glazing

Room temperature

About correct balance of solar intake and thermal mass:

Room temperature

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A final remark
It is important to keep in mind that in a passive-solar design, the building must accomplish the following three functions simultaneously: 1. Collection of solar energy with appropriate glazing, overhangs, etc. 2. Storage of energy collected with appropriate amount and placement of thermal mass 3. Distribution of heat with facilitation of natural ventilation to the desired areas.

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