A climate sensitive design approach to BIPV: Investigating the nexus between solar energy and thermal comfort in cities in Sweden and Cyprus

Abstract

The research performed attempts to answer the question of how building integration of active solar systems may affect the thermal comfort in open areas and the interstitial space between buildings in urban environments. This is done by using computer simulation and in-situ observations at the extreme northern and southern geographies of Europe, namely in Luleå, Sweden and in Limassol, Cyprus. A typical example of the urban grid of each city is chosen and active solar systems are integrated on the facades of buildings, respectively foreach case. The thermal conditions at street level are then simulated, using Envi-MET, before and after systems integration, with the aim of assessing the differences between low and high insolation conditions, using the Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) indicator. Subsequently, the thermal conditions in the public space between buildings were once again assessed, with reduced emissivity values for the building integrated PV panels. The results point to the fact that the building integration of PVs lacking low emissivity coatings can have an impact in the thermal comfort of users in the locations specified, especially in the summer, wherein it is shown to be negligible in the southern case study but more significant in the northern one.