SOLAR ENERGY

Utilization
ENGS-44 Sustainable Design
Benoit Cushman-Roisin
8 April 2014
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
Solar Heat Gain Factors
(SHGFs)
Heat Loss (HL)
Degree-Days (DD)
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 (= enhanced direct gain)
3. Greenhouse (= enhanced trombe wall)
Caution!
These techniques, if used at all, need to be used extremely carefully,
for it is very easy to focus on cold winter days and then have
a building that is uncomfortably warm in summer.
Calculations Recipe for Direct Gain
1. Determine square-feet of glazing (windows)
on East (A
e
), South (A
s
), West (A
w
) and North (A
N
) sides of the building.
2. Adjust these areas downward for shading by overhangs, vegetation
or neighboring structures
3. Select a month and pick the values SHGF
e
, SHGF
s
, SHGF
w
, and SHGF
N
.
4. Correct the SHGFs for cloudiness (% sun).
5. Correct for partial reflection by window glass
(87% or applicable solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC)).
6. Multiply and add for each side of the building:
Solar heat gain per day of the month =
SHG = SGHF
e
x A
e
+ SHGF
s
x A
s
+ SHGF
w
x A
w
+ SHGF
N
x A
N
6. Multiply by number of days in the month.
7. Repeat for other months of the heating season and add the numbers.
Example: Salt-box house in Lebanon, NH
Near 40
o
N SHGFs, in BTUs/(ft
2
.day), and cloudiness factors, in %
House structure
Need to multiply by 0.87
to account for reflection
at window surface
East South West North Total R-value U = 1/R
Window areas 64 162 35 10 271 ft
2
1.92 0.5208
External walls 1,898 ft
2
21.37 0.0468
Roof 1,520 ft
2
31.97 0.0313
Heating month East South West North Cloudiness
September 906 1344 906 238 57%
October 712 1582 712 176 55%
November 508 1596 508 126 46%
December 427 1550 427 104 46%
January 514 1626 514 122 46%
February 733 1642 733 168 55%
March 946 1388 946 228 56%
April 1105 976 1105 308 54%
May 1200 716 1200 430 57%
Add infiltration: I = 4,220 BTUs/(day.
o
F) HL = 6,660 + 4,220 = 10,880 BTUs/(day.
o
F)
September 207
October 558
November 858
December 1,269
January 1,450
February 1,223
March 1,038
April 653
May 308
Climatological
degree-days
for Lebanon, NH
Compare energy demand to solar supply, month after month:
September Demand is HL x Degree-days
= (10,880 BTUs/day.
o
F) x (207
o
F.days) = 2.252 x 10
6
BTUs
Supply is (SHGF
east
A
east
+ )(0.87 window reflection)(57% cloudiness)
= (906 x 64 + 1344 x 162 + 906 x 35 + 238 x 10)(0.87)(0.57)
= 153,631 BTUs/day
There are 30 days in September 153,631 x 30 = 4.609 x 10
6
BTUs
Good news: Supply is more than enough to cover the demand !
Energy
demand
Solar
supply Difference
September 2.252 4.609 + 2.357
October 6.071 4.873 -1.198
November 9.335 3.723 - 5.612
December 13.807 3.653 - 10.154
January 15.776 3.914 - 11.862
February 13.306 4.599 - 8.707
March 11.293 4.845 - 6.447
April 7.105 3.814 - 3.291
May 3.351 3.676 +0.325
Values in million BTUs
for each month
In winter, solar energy is
rarely enough, but it
does make a significant
contribution.
The danger is to provide
too much heat the rest
of the year.
Similar calculations for the remaining heating months of the year. Results are:
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 .
o
F)
October demand increases from 6.039 to 6.245 million BTUs
2. It increases the capture of solar energy:
October solar gain increases from 4.873 to 5.633 million BTUs
The October gap is reduced from 1.198 to 0.538 million BTUs
a reduction of 63%.
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).
Absorber-storage wall (Trombe wall):
But since glazing creates a relatively large conductive heat loss, consider
placing a thick piece of better insulating material just inside
Improved Trombe wall:
With vent holes
through the storage
wall to bring some of
the heat from the
greenhouse into the
living space.
Absorber wall combined with greenhouse:
A variation
The greenhouse may be stifling during the day and too cold at night
for comfort, but it may be just fine to grow plants and food, too!
Should interior space get too hot, a passive solution is the
Solar Chimney
A solar chimney often referred to as a thermal chimney is a way of improving the
natural ventilation of buildings by using convection of air heated by passive solar energy.
A simple description of a solar chimney is that of a vertical shaft utilizing solar energy to
enhance the natural stack ventilation through a building.
The solar chimney has been in use for centuries, particularly in the Middle East and
Near East by the Persians, as well as in Europe by the Romans. (Source: Wikipedia)
Then, one can think of saving the extra daytime heat for use at night.
J
.

K
a
c
h
a
d
o
r
i
a
n
T
h
e

P
a
s
s
i
v
e

S
o
l
a
r

H
o
u
s
e
,

1
9
9
7
,

p
a
g
e

3
9
.
Heat storage:
Heat content = c x M x T

heat mass temperature
capacity
(BTUs/lb
o
F) (lb) (
o
F)
In buildings, we deal with volumes more than masses:
M = x V

density volume
(lb/ft
3
) (ft
3
)
Heat content = H x V x T
where H = c x = specific heat per volume, in BTUs/(ft
3
x
o
F)
Thermal mass inside a building is
adequate for smoothing day-night
temperature variations.
For smoothing seasonal temperature
fluctuations (i.e., storing summer heat for
use in the following winter), one needs to
resort to a geothermal system.
Specific heat Hof various substances and materials
On a volume basis:
Air 0.0182 extremely low
Water 62.44 very high
Concrete 30.1 quite high
Concrete block 28.8
Sheetrock 13.0
Plywood 9.86
Particle board 15.5
Asphalt roofing shingle 21.0
values in BTUs/(ft
3
x
o
F)
When the sun shines on a wall or floor:

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

where
d A V
I Q
I Q

sin
cos for vertical wall
for horizontal floor
) ( ) (
) ( sin
outside room room floor floor
room
room air
room floor floor floor
floor
floor floor
T T HL T T U A
dt
dT
V H
T T U A I A
dt
dT
V H


) (
) (
sin
outside room
room floor floor
floor
T T HL
T T U A
I A

Heat received from sun:

Udue to convection
33 . 0
20 . 0 T U
(Newtons Law of convection)
If the heated surface is a vertical wall:
) (
room wall wall
T T U A
T AU Q



33 . 0
31 . 0 T U
In these expressions, T is in
o
F and Uin BTUs/(ft
2
x hour x
o
F).
Specific heat of air is almost nil,
and we can assume steady state for the room budget:
) ( ) ( 0
outside room room floor floor
T T HL T T U A
of which the solution is:
HL U A
T HL T HL
T T
HL U A
T HL UT A
T
floor
outside floor
room floor
floor
outside floor floor
room

The heat budget for the floor then becomes:

= instant adaptation of
air temperature to a
weighted average
between floor and
outside temperatures
thermal inertia gain from sun loss to the outside
Examples of calculations:
1. Average indoor temperature is adequate but swings too much from day to night.
Not enough thermal mass
Room
temperature
2. Indoor temperature well smoothed between day and night
but not high enough in average
Not enough solar intake; need to increase glazing
Room
temperature
3. About correct balance of solar intake and thermal mass:
Room
temperature
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
not too little and not too much
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 into the desired areas.