Improving summer cooling in the Egypt hot/dry arid region utilizing a Trombe wall system: A field investigation

Abstract

Air conditioning systems consume a large amount of generated electrical energy. Meanwhile, countries face an energy crisis due to the weakening of fossil energy, the world's largest energy source. Researchers were compelled to look for alternate energy sources and realized that solar energy was one of the most viable options. Also, it was found that solar energy may be used to power certain straightforward systems, such as Trombe walls, in place of air conditioning units. The Trombe wall is getting a lot of publicity and has been demonstrated to be very important and influential in today's environment preservation and energy conservation. The present work aims to extend the Trombe wall systems by installing them on residential structures. For a good design that suits the climate of the city of Sohag in Upper Egypt, a test chamber attached to the Trombe wall is set up in the summer, where different designs of Trombe wall configurations and operating conditions are studied. Five patterns of air gates (A, B, C, D, E) between a brick wall and wooden board slots are evaluated. Three different air gaps for Trombe air cavity distances of 100, 200, and 300 mm are examined. Test runs are assessed in two air entry modes via the window opening (mode-I) and the top hatch in the door (mode-II). The experiments are carried out on certain summer days for different summer months: June, July, August, September, and October. The most noteworthy findings revealed that the Trombe solar wall system in Sohag city had the optimum set-up circumstances with an air gap distance (XAG = 300 mm), air entry through window opening (mode-I), air gate arrangement (pattern-D), and plywood air spacing (WPW = 100 mm).