Solar & Wind Technology eel. 6, No. 5, pp. 557-567, 1989 Printed in Great Britain.

0741-983X/89 $3.00+.00 Pergamon Press plc

A REVIEW OF PASSIVE SYSTEMS FOR NATURAL HEATING A N D COOLING OF BUILDINGS

P. C. AGRAWAL Department of Mechanical and Production Engineering, Bright Star University of Technology, P.O. Box 58158, Ajadabia, Libya (Received 1 November 1988; accepted 9 January 1989) Ab~'act--In the present era of energy crisis, energy required for heating and cooling of buildings is 6.7% of the total world energy. Utilization of natural heating and cooling systems which essentially consist of collection, storage, distribution, and control of thermal energy flow can save 2.35% of the world energy requirement. The basic methods of heating and cooling of buildings are: solar radiation, out-going longwave radiation, water evaporation, and nocturnal radiation cooling. Trombe-Michel wall consists of large concrete mass, exposed to sunlight through large, south facing windows, is used for heating the buildings. Solar absorption cooling and solar dehumidification and evaporative cooling are two approaches which utilizes solar energy for generation of working fluid and cooling the dwellings. Longwave radiations emitted by the surface of the earth to the atmosphere and outer space is very strong in a desert climate and is effective from a roof surface. Water evaporation by desert coolers is the method of cooling in arid regions. Nocturnal radiation both heats in winter and cools in summer, in suitable climates, and does so with no non-renewable energy other than a negligible amount required to move the insulation twice a day. The difficulty encountered in the utilization of natural energies is the large area exposed with suitable orientation for collection of energy and large space requirement for the storage of thermal energy. This paper reviews these passive systems for natural heating and cooling of buildings.

INTRODUCTION The utilization of solar energy by man for buildings is not new. Houses have been built to collect as much solar energy as possible---during the winter days and store this energy within the building material, for night uses, to restrict the incidental solar radiation in summer by proper shading devices and radiate out at night for night cooling. In fact, there is no building which does not make use of solar energy in a passive way. This was only when liquid fuels became abundant and readily available, man ignored the significance of such passive systems to make a dwelling comfortable and resorted to active devices. The amount of oil reserves of the Arab world (up to 1/1/85) is 405.2 l 0 9 barrels [1]. If we consider the present oil reserve to be used for internal use within the Arab world and if we assume a 2% population growth per annum, then in the year 2000, the population of the Arab world will reach approximately 290 million, which in turn doubles itself every 35 years to reach 1160 million in the year 2070. If we consider the annual average energy consumption per capita in the Arab world from 1985 until 2070 is 50 GJ/p/yr, then the oil reserve of the Arab world will be just enough
557

to cover this local consumption. Therefore, it is quite clear that by the end of the 21st century the Arab world will also run dry of oil and in order to maintain the same living standard we must think now of conserving energy. At present, requirement of energy for heating and cooling of buildings is 6.7% of the total world energy output (for the Arab world exact data is not available, but it cannot be less than this figure). It has been estimated in a U.S. report that at least 35% of the total energy required for heating and cooling of buildings can be supplied by natural energy sources (such as solar, etc.). By proper passive design concepts, energy saving of 2.35% can be obtained; it reduces air pollution problems caused by the combustion of fuel.

. ~ F I V E AND PASSIVE Basically, there are two approaches of application of solar energy to buildings viz. active systems and passive systems. The active system uses solar collecting panels, storage unit, energy transfer mechanism and energy distribution system. This type of system always uses one or more working fluids which collect, transfer, store and distribute the collected

558
Air bUmd

P. C. AGRAWAL I~ief mt~

IC
Hot vmter hg~st CoLd-wotor inter Servio hot vmter detivtry

Fig. 1. Active solar system for space heating and hot-water heating.

solar energy. The working fluids are circulated by means of fans and pumps. Figure 1 shows an active system for space heating and hot water supply. The term "passive" refers to solar-related architectural concepts and term "passive solar energy" describes the methods of utilizing solar heat available to buildings. Passive design is an attitude towards buildings and represents sophisticated responses to environment and dynamic interactions that can allow a building to collect and secure energy in order to cool and heat itself. Passive systems seek to reduce the house energy bill by close attention to orientation, insulation, window placement and design. Passive systems contain five basic components: collector (windows, water ponds, dark walls); sunlight in winter, water ponds); distribution (radiation, free convection, simple circulation fans) ; controls (moving insulation panels to control building or collector heat loss, vents, and windows--generally, these are manually operated) and back up systems (any non-solar heating or cooling system). In a passive system all the functions of collection, storage and distribution are carried out by the building materials themselves. Most of the passive solar heated building use extensive south-facing glazing area to admit low-angle winter sunshine into the buildings, and extensive mass heat capacity inside the

thermal envelope of the building to store the admitted energy. Though the cost of heating and cooling in passive system is increased because of the extra cost of the materials required above that of the conventional building materials they replace; but this approach produces better results in terms of energy conservation. Such a type of system requires less maintenance, no replacement, durable and will last for a long life time. All these factors increase the economy of the passive system. In case of overcast skies or intermittent sunshine an active system may shut down but a passive system continues collecting. Figure 2 shows classes of passive and active systems using water or air as working fluid. Generally, a combination of active and passive system is often sought if a passive design does not meet a large enough portion of the total heating and cooling requirements. The problems encountered in utilizing the solar energy for heating and cooling of buildings is that this is intermittent on a diurnal scale. F o r example, solar radiation is available during the day time and cooling by convection and outgoing longwave radiation occur at night. The requirement for winter heating and summer cooling is continuous but there are day to day variations in available energy and in the need for it. There may be frequent periods when the demand is the greatest while the supply is nil. As a consequence

Passive systems in buildings for heating and cooling

559

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Fig. 2. Classes of passive and active systems using water or air as working fluid.

all the systems relying to a significant degree on solar energy, have to be incorporated as an integral part of the overall system capacity for storing the thermal energy. Solar radiation, out-going longwave radiation, water evaporation and nocturnal radiation cooling are the basic methods of heating and cooling of bnildings. Solar radiation and nocturnal radiation cooling can be used for both heating and cooling of a building while the other natural energy resources can be used for cooling of the building only.

1. Solar radiation
In solar radiation heating the Trombe-Michel wall is used for heating the building. In solar radiation cooling solar absorption cooling and solar dehumidification and evaporative cooling are the two methods of cooling the building. (a) Trombe-Michel wall. It was first developed by E. S. Morse in the 19th c.~xtury and recently revived by Trombe et al. It consists o f a large conqmte mass 40

cm or more in thickness, exposed to sunlight through large, south facing windows. Sunlight absorbed on the surface of a thermal mass is transferred to the interior of the storage mass by conduction or convection. The air heated by convection rises and passes into the heated space. During the period of no sunlight the south-facing wall may be insulated to reduce potentially large heat losses through the glass. Heat stored in the thermal mass wall is radiated and convected into the space to be heated. During the summer, vents at the top of south-facing wall an are opened to create a chimney effect to enhance ventilation. Figure 3 shows a schematic diagram of a Trombe-type passive solar-heating system. Such kinds of houses have been built in the PyrtntesOrientales district of France and in the U.S. southwest. In the Arab worM, a solar house working on this principle has been made in Jordan in 1983-1984 with two sections in the living space (heated part of the house with a total area of 64.84 m 2) and mechanical room (not heated part with a total area of 43.3 m2). This system having a collector loop, a space heating

560

P.C. AGRAWAL
BLOck absorbing surface

Therm at moss at. Ts Heattossto environment ~// ~ o t u r e To Hea ted__spoce (temperatureTr) ~

South facing double-gLass

wal.L
Fig. 3. Trombe-type passive solar heating system.

load loop and a domestic hot water loop has solar collector area of 40 m 2 of tube--in plate type with a single glass cover with a storage tank capacity of 2.5 m 3. It has been reported by Ta'ani et aL [2] that with proper retrofittings to the house it was possible to meet the 54% of the thermal load on the house by solar energy with a collector array efficiency of 22%. The performance of passive solar heating system has been carried out by Balcomb and Hedstrom [3]. It has been found that a single-glazed south-wall system with no insulation is a net energy loss mechanism for negligibly small storage and even for very large storage it is an ineffective system. It can be seen from Fig. 4 that double-glazing with night insulation, for a reasonably storage mass heat capacity can almost

meet the complete heating requirement of the building by passive solar energy only. Figure 5 shows the effect of area of glass/area of house vs percentage of annual solar heating. It can be seen from the figure that a welldesigned passive system (double-glazing with night insulation) can perform nearly as well as an active system tilted near the optimum angle.

(b) Solar absorption cooling. Suitable chemical solutions for solar absorption cooling are NH3-H20, and LiBr-H20. In N H 3 - H 2 0 solution, NH3 is used as working fluid and in LiBr-H20 solution, H20 is used as working fluid. In this method of cooling, solar energy is used to

t00 Activesystem / / ~

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200 400 600 800 1000 Storage mossheat capociL'y(kJ/m2gC)

02

0.4 0.6 Area of gloss Area of house

0~8

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Fig. 4. Effect of storage mass on the annual energy delivery of a passively heated building.

Fig. 5. Area of glass/area of house vs percentage of annual solar heating.

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Reclrcutotod woter

Passive systems in buildings for heating and cooling

561

Air or water cootant

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Fig. 6. Solar absorption cooling system.

vaporize NH3 vapour from NH3-H20 solution in the generator, while all the operations remain same as that in the ordinary vapour absorption system. This system of cooling is expensive as water at high temperature at 95C is required to operate the absorption cooling machine. Figure 6 shows the schematic diagram of solar absorption cooling system. (c) Solar dehumidification and evaporate cooling. Desiccant materials have high affinity for water vapour which can be used to dehumidify moisture. The materials generally used in solar systems are silica gel and molecular sieve. Molecular sieve has the highest capacity up to 30% relative humidity (RH) and silica gel between 30-74% RH. Figure 7 shows a schematic diagram of solar dehumidification and evaporative cooling using triethylene glycol (TEG) as the desiccant material. The TEG is atomized in order to cause rapid absorption of water vapour in the absorption chamber. The dehumidified air can be further cooled in an evaporative cooler. TEG is regenerated in a stripping chamber by the use of hot air from a solar collector. The hot air drives moisture from the atomized TEG in the stripper and the strong TEG is collected. Heat exchangers can be inserted at several points between weak and strong streams to improve the thermodynamic efficiency of the cycle. This system of cooling in which water is added or subtracted from the atmosphere requires the heating of a great mass of air, absorbent material and

the water vapour resulting in a large amount of heat requirement. The COP of this system is of the order of 0.10-0.15. Figure 8 shows the processes of solar dehumidification and evaporative cooling on a psychrometric chart.

2. Out-going longwave radiation

Longwave radiations are emitted from the surface of the earth to the atmosphere and space. According to the Stefan-Boltzman law, the intensity of emitted radiation is directly proportional to the difference between fourth power of absolute temperatures (k) of the emitting and absorbing surfaces. It, therefore, depends upon the temperature of the earth's surface and that of the medium absorbing the radiation. The net radiative heat loss (R) from a given surface can be calculated from Geiger's equation, R = 0.26 x 1 0 - " ~ ( 0 . 2 3 + 0 . 2 8 x 10-''4p) (1) where Ts = absolute temperature of earth's surface

(K)
p = water vapour pressure (measured close to the ground) (ram of Hg). This equation is only applicable to a cloudless sky. The net radiative heat loss is maximum when the atmosphere is clear and dry. The net radiative heat loss decreases as the amount of water vapour and clouds in the sky increases.

Passive systems in buildings for heating and cooling

563

~r kg of ~ry air

-5

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20

o25

30

35

o40

45

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tm~rature *C

Fig. 8. Psychrometric chart.

order ofg-15C, which is sufficient to cause heat transfer. Air or water can be cooled as they circulate past a surface exposed to the night sky. Several empirical relations have been proposed to relate the black body sky temperature (T~) and ambient air temperature (To), such as Ta, = To(E~)0.25 T~ = 0.0552T,1.5 (2) (3) (4)

T~ = (0.55 + 1.66p)0.25T~

(5)

T,k = To--6

where Ea = apparent emissivity of the sky. Measurement of the radiation characteristics of the sky is complex and no precise data are available. Sloan et al. made measurement of the sky radiation and his result suggested that outside the 8-13/~m wavelength band, the sky radiation characteristics approximate those from a black body at about ambient temperature and that within 8-13 #In band, on nights of low humidity and clear sky, there is little sky radiation.

Table 1. Effect of water vapour on outgoing longwave radiation at various surface temperatures Surface temperature (C) 10 20 30 Transmitted radiation (v.4~t]/cm2/cm2/min) at vapour pressures (mm of Hg) 6 8 10 15 20 0.175 0.200 0.230 0.160 0.183 0.210 . 0.160 0.195 . . 0.153 0.163 . -0.155

4 0.197 0.225 0.260

30 -0.150

564

P. C. AGKAWAL called "Thermoponds" and is exposed to the night sky. Three effects operate to dissipate heat : (i) convection. When the average ambient air temperature is cooler than the water in the ponds. Convective cooling is effective when the night temperatures are appreciably below the comfort zone, i.e. below 19C and when the wind speeds during the night are above 5 km/hr. (ii) Radiation. When the atmospheric dew point temperature is low. (iii) Evaporation. When the ponds are flooded to provide an exposed water surface. During day time, insulations are moved to positions over the roof ponds, and prevent the heating of ponds from above. The bottom of the pond is a metallic plate, which is also the ceiling of a room. Thus, there is heat transfer from the roof to the pond. The pond is maintained at temperature below the ambient temperature during the day. With ambient temperature of the order 37C and dew point 15-20C, forced evaporation of water using blower becomes necessary to maintain a temperature of 27C in the room. In winter the ponds are covered with transparent plastic to prevent evaporation of water. The ponds are heated by exposure to sunlight in the day time. During the night the insulation is moved in position so that there is no heat flow from the roof pond to the atmosphere. Room temperature above 22C could be maintained with outdoor temperature as low as 5C. During the change of season from winter to summer and vice versa, when slight heating is desired during the night and slight cooling during the day time, the insulation need not be moved from its overhead position. Heat capacity of the pond is sufficient enough to modulate the ambient air temperature. There is heat transfer from the room to the pond in the day time and from the pond to the room at night. Movable horizontal insulation, generally made of 5 cm urethane panel, is rolled back and forth to control the rate of heat flow into the thermoponds on winter days and out of the pond to air and the sky in summer nights. Figure 9 shows the operating principle of the thermopond system. The first 'Sky Therm' building was a one-room prototype which was tested extensively in Phoenix, Arizona, during an 18 month period in 1967-1968. The data taken every 12 min showed that the wellinsulated concrete block building could be kept within the comfort zone during the Arizona winter when the outside temperature was as low as - 4 C , and during the Arizona summers, when the atmospheric temperature rose to 46C. Test results showed that during

Table 2. Effect of clouds on outgoing long wave radiation Cloudiness in tenths 0

1

Per cent of outgoing radiation I00 98 95 90 85 79 73 64 52 35 15

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 I0

The net radiation loss for a terrestial surface in a steady state (qir) is the algebraic sum of outgoing radiation and incoming radiation from the atmosphere and is given by the empirical equation
qir = a T~ E~( 0.39 - 0.0096p)(1 - a 3cc ) +4E, aT3(T~-T,~)

(6)

where

tr = Stefan-Boltzman's constant (118 1 0 - 9 cal/cm 2 day K 4 = 5.71 10 -5 ergs/cm 2 sec K 4) E, = emissivity of the surface a3 = empirical constant function of latitude of a place cc = cloud covers expressed in tenths.

Table 3 shows the values of a3 for different latitude angles. A passive system which can both heat in winter and cool in summer, in suitable climates, and does so with no non-renewable energy other than a small amount of energy required to move the insulation panels twice a day (invented by Harold's Hay) involves space heating with solar radiation in winter and cooling by radiation to the night sky and water evaporation in summer, was accomplished with a ceiling pond movable insulation. This system is reported to be capable of meeting different weather types with various means of modulating ambient conditions. The salient feature of this "Sky Therm" system in summer is that water enclosed or filled in plastic bags Table 3. a3 at different latitude angles. Latitude (degrees) 5 10 15 20 30 40 a3 0.50 0.52 0.55 0.59 0.63 0.68 Latitude (degrees) 50 60 70 80 90 a3 0.72 0.76 0.80 0.84 0.86

Passive systems in buildings for heating and cooling

Evaporation and
radiation to sky Movol)(e i mmtotion

565

RefLected solar rtxliotion

Absorbed so(or rodiotion I

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,'.'5 Corr/ugo
II 4 i

][

II

,.~..d,=,,t

steel deck

I I ~gs

,,

rf tl,

i:!
f6',

Fig. 9. Operating principle of the 'Thermo-pond' system.

several months of the year, no movements of panels was needed since the nocturnal loss of heat from the building surface is just balanced by heat gains from solar radiation and internal heat sources. A full size house utilizing a heating and cooling system composed of roof water bags intermittently covered with insulation was designed and tested in Atascadero, California (35N latitude), having a complete area of 102 m 2. The energy flow takes place from

various sources on a typical day as shown in Fig. 10. Table 4 shows the heat balance of a typical cooling day in Atascadero. Some theoretical and technical problems which require further research and development are: (i) Theoretical model for predicting quantitively the thermal performance of roof ponds with movable insulation.

~
"

1~: ' ~
II

''~"

--''--'"
22.11J ~
si~b

Fig. 10. Energy flow on a typical cooling day.

566

P. C. AGRAWAL Table 4. Heat balance of a typical cooling day in Atascadero Heat rejected to night sky (%) 36.70 03.09 06.77 03.96 01.01 00.87 07.42 11.58 71.40 28.60 100.00 218.50 Outgoing heat (MJ) Heat rejected to night sky 218.50

Heat sources Sun through glass Conducted through glass Sun on walls Conducted through walls Conducted through slabs Infiltration Through people By appliances Sun through shut panels

Incoming heat (M J) 80.20 06.75 14.80 08.65 02.20 01.90 16.20 25.30 156.00 62.50 218.50

(ii) Optimum depth of water. (iii) The need for, and details of, the storage of heat in winter and summer. (iv) Maintenance of the pond.

CONCLUSIONS By proper passive solar design concepts, at least 2.35% of the world energy output can be saved. Passive design concepts involve methods of collecting, storing, distributing and controlling the thermal energy flow by various conceptual and physical principles of thermodynamics applicable to the building materials. These principles can be translated through a range of building vocabularies and become qualities inherent to the building construction and operation methodology. It produces a building that is more integrated in its physical context, and offers design potential to the architectural and building profession. It appears that a general evaluation of different approaches is now necessary for the development of components and system which can be integrated in the design of mass-produced houses. The new buildings should be designed by applying new approaches and techniques on a relatively large scale, thus enabling significant energy saving improvement of the quality of the environment. A major difficulty in passive system design is the large space requirement for the storage of thermal energy. The structure of the building can store about 0.23 kWh/C/ton of its mass. The mass of the structure, therefore, can provide a partial solution of the storage problem. For effective heat storage, the mass of the building should be concentrated mainly within the interior of building, such as in the internal partitions and floors, while the external walls should be of high insulation capacity. In other words, the heat storage within the structure requires specific approach to the design of buildings.

ECONOMICS AND APPLICATION The competitive position of natural heating and cooling system in relation to heat pump or refrigeration and heating depends upon its mass acceptance after the economics are precisely proved. The main feature of a natural heating and cooling system may be in its low operating cost. One approach of reduction in cost may be in utilization of elements of the building, e.g. the roof or the southern wall, as an integral part of the energy collection system. Elements of the building such as the ceiling and the floor can also be utilized as the heat (or cold) distribution systems taking advantages of their large areas which enable operation at very small temperatures. A significant application of natural heating and cooling system is in agricultural for dual control of temperatures to heat one building with solar energy and to cool another imparting this energy to the night sky. The desired temperatures in both situations can be maintained with the same insulation. A greenhouse may be kept warm at night and a storage shed cool through the day, or a farmer's house may be warmed and potatoes and other crop sheds cooled. A modern dual function unit may be designed with a solar still producing water in the day time for drinking purposes and for conversion to ice at night by radiation to the cold sky.

Passive systems in buildings for heating and cooling REFERENCES 11 M. M. Lababidi, Oil exploration and its present prospect in the Arab-countries. 4th Training Program in the Fundaraentals of the Oil and Gas Industry, OAPEC, Kuwait, 30.10.85 to 12.11.85 (in Arabic). 2. R. Ta'ani, H. E1-Mulki and S. Batorseh, Jordan solar honse--second testing year. Proc. Second Arab Int. Solar Energy Conf. Bahrain, 15-21 February 1986, p. 160. 3. J. D. Balcomb and J. C. Hedstrom, Simulation analysis of passive solar-heated buildings. Los Alamos Report, LA-UR-76-89 (1976).

567

BIBLIOGRAPHY

P. C. Agrawal and M. L. Mathur, A review of passive system for natural cooling of buildings. Inst. Engrs J. (India) 63, January (1983). M. N. Bachadori, Solar energy utilization for developing countries. Abstracts of Selected Solar Energy Technology, Vol. I, No. 8, p. 12, August 1979. B. Givoni, Solar Heating and Night Radiation Cooling by a Roof Radiation Trap. Applied Sciences Publications (1974). B. Givoni, Utilization of Nocturnal Energiesfor Heating and Cooling of Houses. Applied Seienees Publications, London (1974).

B. Givoni, Man, Cl~nate, and Architecture. Applied Sciences Publication, London ~1974). H. R. Hay and J. I. Yellot, International aspects of air conditioning with movable insulation. Solar Energy 12, 427 (1969). F. Krieth and J. F. Krieder, Principles of Solar Engineering. McGraw-Hill (1978). Ralph M. Lebens, Passive Solar Heating Design. Applied Sciences Publishers, London (1980). M. L. Mathur and P. C. Agrawal, Nocturnal radiation cooling for natural heating and cooling of buildings. Institution of Engineers, India. P. W. B. Niles, Thermal evaluation of house using movable insulation heating and cooling systems. Solar Energy 18, 413 (1976). A. A. M. Sayigh, Solar Energy Engineering. Academic Press (1977). A. A. M. Sayigh, Solar Energy Applications in Buildings. Academic Press (1977). .4 Survey of Passive Solar Building. Published by US Department of Housing and Urban Development in Cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy (1976). J. I. Yellot, Utilization of sun and sky for heating and cooling of buildings. ASHRAE J. 35, December (1973). J. I. Yellot, Passive solar heating and cooling system. ,4SHRAE Trans. (part 2), p. 429 (1977). J. I. Yellot, Passive solar heating and cooling systems, ASHRAE J. 60, January (1978). J. I. Yellot, Solar Heating and Cooling of Homes. Solar Energy Engineering. Academic Press (1979).