Energy Assessment of Façade-Integrated Solar Thermal Collectors in Multi-floor Buildings
Abstract
The aim of this work is to assess the energy performance of solar thermal collectors integrated in the façade of residential and tertiary multi-story buildings. Here, the collected solar heat collected is exploited to cover a share of the space heating and hot water preparation thermal loads, replacing the use of a traditional fossil fuel-based generation system. The assessment is carried out with the use of dynamic energy simulations based on the TRNSYS software, where a thermal zone is appropriately characterized to model the modular unit composing the perimetral zones of the studied building types. The scope of the paper includes a parametrical analysis for three characteristic European climates (Mediterranean climate, Continental climate and Nordic climate), two specific water storage volumes and two facade designs. Based on the studied scenarios, it is concluded that façade-integrated solar thermal collectors applied to hotels, hospitals and dorms can well exploit the locally available solar irradiation and reach interesting solar yields and solar fractions, whereas office buildings show a poor matching at higher latitudes.