Renewable Energy 28 (2003) 623645 www.elsevier.

com/locate/renene

Design of a solar collector for year-round climatization

S. Ubertini b, U. Desideri a,
a

` Universita di Perugia, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, Via G. Duranti 1A/4, 06125 Perugia, Italy b ` Universita di Roma Tor Vergata, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica, Via di Torvergata, 110, 00133 Roma, Italy Received 7 August 2001; accepted 11 June 2002

Abstract Solar heating systems in buildings have increasingly been studied in the past two decades. In several applications the primary energy demand is now for both heating and cooling, and modern solar collectors should be designed to provide climatization during the whole year. Solar systems are seldom applied in Europe, and large buildings, such as ofce buildings and schools, continue to be built with mechanical ventilation systems. The study presented in this paper is part of a European XVII Thermie project entitled Pilot project for photovoltaic, energetic and biohousing retrieval in a school, whose aim was to install a photovoltaic plant and solar air collectors coupled with a sun breaker structure at a scientic high school in Umbertide, in central Italy. This paper describes the research and development activities concerning a solar air collector suited for winter heating and summer ventilation, which was installed at the high school. The collector physical and numerical modelling of heat transfer and uid ow in winter operation is presented. The system performance has been estimated as a function of different parameters in order to provide a tool for the design process. Furthermore, the climate in the area has been simulated through the available experimental data, and the system behavior under these conditions is presented. The collectors were installed at the scientic high school in Umbertide in spring 2001. Summer ventilation cooling is under testing and an experimental test period is foreseen next winter to validate the design of the collectors and their performance. 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +39-075-585-3743; fax: +39-075-585-3736. E-mail address: umberto.desideri@unipg.it (U. Desideri).

0960-1481/03/$ - see front matter 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 9 6 0 - 1 4 8 1 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 7 1 - X

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Nomenclature b c Deq g Gr ha1, ha2 hg1, hg2 I k La Lg m Nu pr Pr Re T Wf a g rg g t a b, w Collector width (m) Air specic heat (J/kg C) Equivalent diameter (m) Gravitational acceleration (m/s2) Grashof Number Convective heat transfer coefcients on the absorber plate for channels A and B respectively (W/m2 C) Convective heat transfer coefcients on the cover for channels A and ambient respectively (W/m2 C) Solar radiation (W/m2) Thermal conductivity of air (W/m C) Absorber plate length (m) Absorber plate length (m) Mass ow rate (kg/s) Nusselt number Recirculating/Total ow rate Prandtl number Reynolds number Temperature (C) Fan consumption (W) Absorption coefcient of the absorber plate Cover transmittance coefcient Cover reection coefcient Cover absorption coefcient Collector thermal efciency Fins heat exchange coefcient Pressure loss coefcient Friction coefcient Bulk, wall cinematic viscosities (m2/s)

1. Introduction Solar heating systems in buildings have increasingly been studied in the past two decades. The market opportunities to integrate or replace traditional energy sources with solar energy is enormous, since the cost of solar energy systems has declined and important technical, commercial, and political progress is currently being made. However, the contribution of solar energy to the world energy needs still remains small and the current trend does not show signicant increases. Passive and active solar heating is a well-established concept. Different techniques

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used for passive heating can be found in the literature [1] such as direct gain, Trombe wall, transparent insulation, etc. Experimental and numerical results are available for Trombe walls [2] and solar chimneys [3]. Cooling techniques by means of solar systems have been investigated [4,5] and a summary of the state-of-art passive cooling systems has been presented by Givoni [6]. The potential of a Trombe wall for summer ventilation has been analytically studied by using CFD codes [7,8]. Passive solar systems which provide heating, cooling, and ventilation in different seasons of the year [9], such as the BarraCostantini [10] and the Silvestrini Bell systems [11], though uncommon, have shown to be applicable in composite climates. Air collectors are radiative heat exchangers converting solar radiant energy into heat, which is transferred by convection from the absorber to the working uid. Air collectors can be mainly divided into two types: with an absorber plate exchanging heat with the working uid and with the working uid owing through a matrix absorber [12]. Such systems are rare in Europe and large buildings, such as ofce buildings and schools, are still built with mechanical ventilation systems. Italy is among the sunniest European countries but solar energy in buildings has had a slow development and application. As the dependence on fossil fuels, with the resulting polluting emissions, are increasing, the possibility of integrating solar systems into new and old buildings is more and more important. The main obstacle to this is the unaffordable costs. Moreover, most of the solutions proposed in the literature can be easily applied during construction but they cannot be proposed for existing buildings. The study presented in this paper is part of a European XVII Thermie project entitled Pilot project for photovoltaic, energetic and biohousing retrieval in a school, whose aim was to install a photovoltaic plant and solar air collectors coupled with a sun breaker structure at a scientic high school in Umbertide, in central Italy. This paper describes the research and development activities concerning a solar air collector suited for winter heating and summer ventilation, which was installed at the high school. The physical and numerical modelling of heat transfer and uid ow in a solar air collector with an absorber plate exchanging heat with the working uid is presented. The main objective of the research is to propose a simple solar collector that could be easily mounted on existing buildings and that could provide thermal comfort conditions inside the rooms throughout the entire year. The solution adopted for the scientic high school in Umbertide was studied by the authors and this paper presents the numerical model developed to predict the thermal performance of the solar collector and to create a tool for the design of similar systems. The climate conditions in the area have been simulated by using the available measured data, and the system behavior under these conditions has been studied.

2. System description The air collector described in this paper converts solar radiant energy into heat during winter and provides fresh ventilation air in the summer. Ambient air is blown through the collector by a 60 W tangential fan.

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Fig. 1.

Section of the air collector.

Three main ducts can be identied inside the collector (Fig. 1): the inlet duct; the outlet duct; the recirculating duct. The recirculating duct is opened in the heating mode (winter) and is closed in the cooling mode (summer). In winter operation, air is blown inside the rooms by the tangential fan after partial mixing with internal air. Therefore, internal air is partially recirculated and partially blown out. In summer operation there is no recirculation of inside air and all the entering ow comes from the outside. Short-wave solar radiation penetrates the collector through a single, highly transparent glass cover and is absorbed on the surfaces of a high-absorbency, black-painted plate. The transparent glass is a 6 mm thickness Protective Low Emissions EKO with a high transmittance coefcient (g = 0.77) for short-wave radiation and a quasi-zero transmittance for long-wave radiation (Table 1). This allows the solar radiation to
Table 1 Absorption plate characteristics Material Thermal Conductivity at 20 C (W/m) Black paint Absorption factor for solar radiation Emittance infrared 80 C 4050 A-H24 210 Metacrylic 0.88 0.66

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Table 2 Cover characteristics Material Transmittance coefcient (W/m2K) Thickness (mm) Transmittance factor for solar radiation Absorption factor for solar radiation Shading coefcient Protective Low Emissions EKO 4.3 6 0.77 0.12 0.91

enter the collector with little energy losses and avoids convective and long-wave radiation losses to the ambient air. A single glazing was chosen in order to maximize the radiation impact on the absorber surface and to reduce costs. The absorber consists of two black-painted 4050 A-H24 aluminum foils with a solar absorption factor, a, of 0.88 (Table 2). The absorber divides the inlet duct into two channels of 31 mm and 46 mm width respectively and air is heated by forced convection on both sides and then ows upward in the inlet duct (Fig. 2a). The sun-exposed side of the absorber is smooth in order to maximize the absorbed solar radiation, while ns are mounted on the other side to increase the air-absorber heat transfer surface. The resulting warm air is used for ventilation and the outlet channel guarantees air exchange. Thermal insulation between the collector and the buildings wall minimizes losses. The air collector is designed to be mounted under the window of the room to be heated and its upper face becomes the windowsill (Fig. 3). An upward direction of the warm air has been chosen to avoid air streams owing in the direction of the people sitting next to the windows. The return channel is designed to recirculate 62% of the air coming from the room, while expelling the remaining 38%. Therefore, a partial heat recovery from exhaust air is performed, thus increasing the temperature of the inlet airow. The outlet and the recirculation channels are 50 mm and 28 mm wide respectively.

Fig. 2. Winter (a) and Summer (b) air collector operating principles.

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Fig. 3.

Section of the collector mounted on a building.

When the collector fan is off, the inlet, the outlet, and the recirculating ducts are automatically closed to avoid disturbing cold air streams inside the room. For summer cooling (Fig. 2b) the recirculating channel is closed, and the collectors can be used for ventilation cooling during daytime to reduce or eliminate the need for energy-intensive refrigeration cooling. An array of horizontal sun breakers mounted outside the building prevents direct insulation to the collector. Fresh air, blown inside the room, provides ventilation, while heated air ows out to the ambient. The collector can also be activated during the night, thus providing a sort of cooling storage for the following morning. This paper presents the modelling and thermal performance results of the air collector in winter operation. The calculation model includes the following steps: 1. air pressure drop analysis and duct HQ curve tracing; 2. heat transfer analysis and determination of temperature. Both steps, presented in detail in the following sections, were calculated at the same time, since viscosity and density depend on temperature and forced convective heat transfer depends on ow velocity. The effects of design and operational parameters on the collector performance are also determined. The main design assumptions result from a compromise between larger ow rates (higher collector efciency), higher heat-transfer coefcients, and energy consump-

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tion of the fan. The system performance is simulated with climate conditions in the area. The following assumptions have been made in this analysis: 1. temperatures of cover and absorber plate are uniform; 2. the dependence on temperature of the various thermophysical properties has been considered; 3. the various thermophysical properties have been calculated at atmospheric pressure; 4. in each section an energy conversion from mechanical energy to heat occurs and the resulting temperature rise of the owing air has been neglected; 5. for the radiative heat coefcient, innity width has been considered; 6. radiant emissions of the glass and the absorber plate have been neglected; 7. radiant absorption of air has been neglected; 8. each component of the system is in thermal equilibrium with the surrounding air; 9. calculations have been performed for steady conditions. All the computations were performed in a EES (Engineering Equation Solver) [13] code, developed by the authors.

3. Pressure drop and air ow rate In predicting the performance of the air collector, it is necessary to determine the air ow rate and the air speed inside the ducts through an analysis of the air pressure drops. Since the latter depend upon the ow rate, a loop calculation is needed. The analysis presented here is one dimensional in nature and the conditions at any cross section of the circuit are represented by the area-weighted average value of the ow parameters over the section. The losses have been calculated by splitting the circuit into component parts or blocks and analyzing the pressure drops in each component in series (Fig. 4). The localized pressure drops have been determined through the well-known equation [14] Hi1 x V2 2g (1)

where is the loss coefcient and V is the discharge velocity. The loss coefcient of the diffuser (block 1), which connects the blower to the main duct, is related to the Reynolds number and to the geometry of the diffuser in terms of the equivalent conical expansion angle and the area ratio [14]. The pressure drops in the constant area sections (blocks 2 and 4) have been evaluated through the following approximation of the ColebrookWhite formula for the friction coefcient [14]:

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Fig. 4. Circuit blocks for hydraulic analysis.

l 1

8 Re e Deq

(2)

where l 0.25 log Deq3.71 e

2

(3)

Deq is the nominal hydraulic equivalent diameter dened as: Deq 4(cross section area) , (wetted perimeter) (4)

Re is the Reynolds number and is the hydraulic roughness of the surfaces. The inlet channel (block 2) is divided into channel A and channel B (Fig. 3) and the total pressure drop has been determined applying the boundary conditions of equal pressures at the inlet and at the outlet of both channels. Moreover, the mass conservation law allows the determination of the discharge velocity of one channel as a function of the discharge velocity of the other.

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The 90 corner (block 3) pressure drop can expressed with Eq. (1) with the loss coefcient expressed as: xc cC (5)

where C depends upon the ratio between the bending radius and the hydraulic diameter and c depends upon the curve angle. Experimental values of c and C are available in [15].The evaluations of the losses due to inlet and outlet grids (block 0 and block 5) are based on Idelchik [14], in which grid pressure drop is expressed as a function of the free to total area ratio. The driving force, which controls the airow rate through the inlet duct is provided by a blower and by the density difference of air at inlet and outlet of the system. The blower chosen for the air collector is a tangential dual-turbine fan, that needs 60 W of power supply. Considering the data available from the constructor, the H Q relationship can be expressed as a third-order polynomial of the ow rate.

4. Thermal analysis The thermal analysis of the air collector is focused on channels A and B, where the owing air exchanges heat with the absorbing plate and the surroundings by forced convection. Considering the entire process of solar radiation absorbance, the total amount of solar radiation that reaches the absorber plate has been calculated as follows [16]: I0 Itgaa I(1 ag)tgagrg I(1 ag)2tgagr2 g (6)

where I is the solar radiation; a is the absorption coefcient of the absorber; g is the cover transmittance coefcient; rg is the cover reection coefcient. Referring to Fig. 4, the energy balances of the cover and of the absorber plate result:
La

I0bLa
0

{ha1[Ta T1(x)]

baha2[Ta T2(x)]}bdx

(7)

and
Lg

IagbLg
0

{hg1b[Tg T1(x)]}dx

hg2bLg(Tg Tamb)

(8)

where g is the absorption coefcient of the cover;

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ha1 and ha2 are the convective heat transfer coefcients from absorber plate to uid for respectively channel A and channel B; hg1 and hg2 are the convective heat transfer coefcients from cover to uid for respectively channel A and external ambient; and a is a coefcient determined by the heat exchange rise due to the absorber ns [17]. The energy balances consider null cover and absorber radiant emissions, since at the operational temperatures of solar air collectors they are negligible if compared to the incident solar radiation. Moreover, as mentioned before, the glass used for the cover has a quasi-zero transparency coefcient for long-wave radiations. To determine the airow temperature inside the inlet duct, the energy balance equation can be written over a small element in the direction of the ow. Therefore, if x [0;La]: m1cdT1(x) {ha1[Ta T1(x)] hg1Tg T1(x)}bdx (9) is the energy balance equation between the smooth surface of the absorber and the interior cover, and m2cdT2(x) {baha2[Ta T2(x)] hw[Tw T2(x)]}bdx (10) is the energy balance equation between the nned surface of the absorber and the recirculating duct wall, where mi is the ow rate; c is the air specic heat; and Tw is the temperature of the wall between channel B and the recirculating duct, which has been xed as the average between recirculating air and channel B air temperatures. The variables Ta, Tg, and the functions T1(x) and T2(x) can be determined combining eqs. (6)(9) and solving the resulting differential system. The boundary conditions can be summarized as follows: Ti(0) prTr (1 pr)Tamb for i=1,2 where pr is the fraction of ow rate that is recirculated. The convective heat transfer coefcients have been calculated through its nondimensional form, the local Nusselt number [17]: Nui hidi ki (11)

where ki is the local conductivity of the uid and i is the width of the duct for ha1, ha2, hg1, and hw and is equal to the cover length Lg for hg2.The Nusselt number is a function of different parameters and changes from laminar to turbulent ow. Therefore, the hydraulic and the thermal analysis must be solved together since the rst provides the velocity values necessary to calculate the convective coefcients and the latter provides the temperature values necessary to determine the various thermophysical properties. An iterative calculation has been introduced in order to evaluate the Reynolds number and then determine the right expression of the Nusselt number. The following expressions of the Nusselt number [16] have been considered for Nua1, Nua2, Nug1, and Nuw:

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Nu

1.86

RePrDeq La

1/3

nb for Re nw

2300

(12)

where b is the bulk viscosity and w is the wall viscosity of the working uid [17], and Nu 0.0196Re0.8Pr1/3 for Re 6000 (13)

valid for turbulent ows between two at plates, one of which is heated. For Reynolds numbers between 2300 and 6000, a weight averaged value has been considered. The heat exchange between ambient environment and cover, determined through hg2, can be summarized by the following expression of the Nusselt number [16]: Nu 0.555(GrPr)1/4 (14)

5. Air collector performance parametric analysis A numerical simulation model was developed for the air collector in heating mode. The design values used in the analysis are summarized in Table 3. The rst step of this study is the analysis of the air collector performances as a function of the following parameters: ambient temperature in the range from 0 C to 20 C; solar radiation in the range from 300 to 900 W/m2. Standard indoor design temperature has been set to 20 C. The air ow rate under these conditions varies between 270 and 280 m3/h. This means that the driving force due to the density variation from inlet to outlet of the collector is negligible if compared to the fan. With a solar heat ux of 500 W/m2 and an ambient temperature of 7 C, average velocities in channels A and B are 1.60 m/s and 0.54 m/s, respectively. These operating conditions yield an air mass ow rate of 91.9 g/s. For a design inside temperature of 20 C, Fig. 5 shows the airow temperature of the system outlet for different outside temperatures and insolation values. The air collector performance satises the minimum room inlet temperature of 20 C in all the insolation range for outside temperatures above 12 C. Considering that solar

Table 3 Design parameters Lg (mm) La (mm) b (mm) Tr(C) g (m/s2) 1364 1314 1100 20 C 9.81

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Fig. 5.

Air collector outlet temperature vs ambient temperature.

irradiance values above 600700 W/m2 seldom occur in winter, the minimum outside temperature at which the collector should work is from 5 to 8 C. The contribution of channels A and B ows is shown in Fig. 6 for a xed solar radiation. It is easily detectable that over a certain value of the outdoor temperature the major contribution changes from channel B to channel A. This is due to the outside temperature effect on air-cover heat transfer occurring in channel A and is clearly evident from eq. (10).The absorber temperature effect on the air collector performance is shown in Fig. 7. An absorber temperature above 35 C guarantees an outlet temperature above 20 C in both outside temperature and insolation ranges. In the most likely winter solar radiation values (below 600 W/m2) and with outside temperatures below 8 C, the absorber temperature is lower than 35 C. This means

Fig. 6. Temperatures at channels A and B outlets.

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Fig. 7.

Absorber temperature vs outlet temperature.

that the blower on/off switch control should be based on both absorber temperature and outside temperature. Fig. 8 shows the thermal collector efciency dened as the ratio of the useful specic enthalpy ow, i.e., the product of the specic air mass ow rate, the specic heat of the air, and the air temperature increase between collector inlet and outlet and the sum of the incident solar radiation ux and the fan power supply, Wf: ht mc(Tout Tin) Wf I (15)

The thermal efciency of the air collector varies between 65 and 71% in the insolation range and rises with increasing solar radiations and decreasing outside temperature. The latter effect is due to the increasing temperature difference between

Fig. 8.

Air collector thermal efciency.

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Fig. 9.

Off-design air collector outlet temperature vs ambient temperature.

the absorber plate and the airow with a decreasing outside temperature. The efciency, in fact, indicates only the thermal performance of the system, based on the temperature difference produced inside the collector, while ignoring the feasibility of the system. Therefore, an outlet temperature below 20 C could correspond to high efciencies. Off-design performance of the air collector is shown in Figs. 9 and 10, where the collector outlet temperature trend is shown for half and null recirculation rates. Even if the nominal recirculation ow rate is 62% of the inlet one, different ow rates in the recirculating duct have been considered, since they depend on the pressure difference between outside and inside which is xed by the blower. The nominal condition

Fig. 10. Off-design air collector outlet temperature vs ambient temperature.

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Fig. 11. Air collector outlet temperature in function of the recirculation ow rate and of the outside temperature.

is only reached when the room is airtight, which means that all windows and doors in the room are closed. The effect of the heat recovery from recirculated air is clearly detectable. With a 30% recirculation ow rate and ambient temperatures below 1012 C, solar radiation below 400500 W/m2 does not guarantee 20 C at the collector outlet. Moreover, null recirculation means that the collector outlet temperatures are acceptable only for high insolation and outside temperature values. This is more evident from Fig. 11, where the recirculation ow rate/outside temperature contour plot of the outlet temperature is shown at two different solar radiations. For a solar radiation of 700 W/m2, only recirculation ow rates over 20% of the total are acceptable. The lower acceptance limit rises to 40% for 500 W/m2. The collector efciency (Fig. 12) shows a maximum with recirculation ow rates around 20% and tends to decrease very rapidly approaching 0%.

Fig. 12. Air collector thermal efciency vs recirculation ow rate.

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6. Performance results for the Perugia climate The previous sections deal with the effect of some parameters on the collector performance, without giving any information on the system behavior under particular climate conditions. In this section the collector performances under the climate conditions of Perugia (Table 4) are determined. Perugia is the largest town near Umbertide where weather parameters are regularly measured and recorded. The most important climatic contributing factors on the collector performances are: solar radiation; outside temperature; room temperature. The amount of solar energy reaching a specic location on the surface of the Earth at a specic time depends on several factors, i.e., sun angle, declination, and geographic coordinates. If the sun is directly overhead and the sky is clear, direct radiation on a generic surface can be calculated through the Bouguer law [16]. Sun charts can be drawn for the geographic coordinates of the site (Table 4). The intensity of solar radiation received by the collector depends upon its angle and its direction. The calculation considers the air collector vertical, directed towards south and exposed to solar radiation throughout the day. The direct daily insolation on a vertical surface with clear sky in Perugia has been calculated through SIENA software [18].The following experimental climatic data of Perugia are available [16,1921]: maximum, average, and minimum monthly temperature (Fig. 13); average daily humidity; average number of days with clear sky; average number of days with cloudy sky; average daylight length; global average daily insolation on a horizontal surface. The prediction of the air collector performance under certain climatic conditions has been made through an estimate of hourly solar irradiance. Experimental data on hourly insolation are not available. Therefore, statistical methods are required for its prediction. The method proposed by Liu and Jordan [16,22] has been used in this paper. Being available, the global average daily insolation, the direct and diffused hourly
Table 4 Perugias geographic coordinates Latitude (degrees) Longitude (degrees) Altitude (m) 43 07 09.797 12 21 20.518 351.24

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Fig. 13. Monthly representation of the tyipical maximum, average, and minimum daily temperatures.

insolation are correlated to the astronomical daylight length, which can be easily determined through the geographic coordinates of the site. The data available allowed tting the hourly fraction of the daily solar radiation power with a polynomial function of the daylight length, obtaining for each half hour before and after solar midday the direct insolation and the diffused insolation. Data have been interpolated with a polynomial least squares curve t. The ratio of the direct to clear sky insolation, both known, is named cloudiness factor. The ratio of the diffused to total insolation is correlated to the cloudiness factor and the data available have been plotted with a least square fth-order polynomial t. This procedure allowed the determination of the average hourly direct and diffused solar radiation on a generic surface, starting from statistical data on daily clear sky and global insolation. The performances of the air collector are then presented with two different climate conditions: the ideal condition of clear sky, thus allowing a direct calculation of the solar radiation at each time of day in function of the sun parameters; only the geographic coordinates of the site are necessary; the hourly insolation with a cloudiness factor of 0.7, calculated through statistical data available in literature and using the Liu and Jordan method [16,22]. Results are presented from October the 1st to March the 31st. Time indications refer to solar time. The clear-sky climate conditions allow acceptable collector outlet temperatures almost all through the winter from 10.00 to 14.00 even xing the outside temperature

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Fig. 14.

Predicted otulet temperature with clear sky from 2 to 3 hours from solar midday.

equal to the minimum monthly temperature (Fig. 14). Before 9.00 and after 15.00, with average monthly temperature as outside temperature, the airow predicted temperature is below 20 C only in December and January (Fig. 15). Moreover, the absorber temperature is always over 30 C, as shown in Fig. 16. Since a clear sky is an ideal condition but not easily found in typical winter climates, the air collector performances have been predicted with a xed cloudiness factor. A value of 0.7 has been chosen since, according to experimental data available, it approaches the typical cloudiness factor of Perugias climate conditions. The collector results indicate it being a very attractive heating system, since outlet temperatures exceed 20 C in most of the winter time (Fig. 17). In the hottest hours

Fig. 15.

Predicted otulet temperature with clear sky and average typical monthly temperature.

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Fig. 16.

Predicted absorber temperature with clear sky and average typical monthly temperature.

Fig. 17. ture.

Predicted outlet temperature with cloudiness factor of 0.7 and average typical monthly tempera-

of the day, they range from about 27 C in October to about 22 C in January for the average monthly ambient temperature. Moreover, from October to December and from February to March, the temperature gain is high enough for at least four hours, even xing the outside temperature at the minimum monthly value (Fig. 18). Off-design performance, with half recirculation ow rate, is shown in Fig. 19. The penalty due to reduced heat recovery is clearly detectable. In four months with average monthly temperature, air above 20 C is blown inside the room for at least two hours during the day. Therefore, even in these conditions, the air collector seems to give good support to a traditional heating system.

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Fig. 18.

Predicted otulet temperature with cloudiness factor of 0.7 from 2 to 3 hours from solar midday.

Fig. 19. Off-design predicted outlet temperature with cloudiness factor of 0.7 and average typical monthly temperature.

To better understand the collector performance during the day, two representative days have been chosen for extreme daily climate conditions. In particular, the 8th of February and the 8th of October have been selected, because they have almost the same insolation with extremely different temperatures (Fig. 13). Fig. 20 shows design and off-design collector outlet temperature trend versus the time from solar midday with clear sky solar radiation. The performances are acceptable for two hours before and after midday, except for off-design operation in February. This happens because off-design conditions are particularly adverse for low

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Fig. 20.

Daily predicted outlet temperature with a cloudiness factor of 0.7.

outside temperatures, since both of them determine the inlet airow temperature. Almost the same consideration can be made through the collector performance plot with 70% cloudiness factor as shown in Fig. 21.

7. Conclusions The solar air collector studied in this paper and installed at a high school in central Italy has shown to have good performance as an additional heating system which can generate warm air and help the change of air inside the building. Expected air temperatures during most of the winter exceed 20 C. During the development and the installation of the collectors some important changes in the control system were decided on, and automatic closing of the air

Fig. 21.

Off-design daily predicted outlet temperature with a cloudiness factor of 0.7

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ducts was implemented to prevent cold air from entering the building in case of too low solar ux. Since the collectors were installed in spring 2001, summer ventilation cooling is under testing and an experimental test period is foreseen next winter to validate the deisgn of the collectors and their performance.

Acknowledgements Work described in this paper was carried out as part of a European XVII Thermie project entitled Pilot project for photovoltaic, energetic and biohousing retrieval in a school. The authors wish to thank the Province of Perugia, project leader, and the AEA (Energy and Environment Agency) for the constant support. The other project participants are: ANIT s.r.l., PRAU s.r.l. and S.M.A. REGELSYSTEME GmbH.

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