Improving the efficiency of the trombe wall by integrating multi-fold glazing and sustainable materials: Ifrane, Morocco as a case study

Abstract

The Trombe wall is renowned for its effectiveness in passive heating during winter, but it can lead to overheating in summer. To address this issue, this study investigates a Trombe wall with fully opening glazing during the summer season, employing multi-fold glazing. The research, conducted in Ifrane, Morocco, focuses on a residential building using the Conduction Finite Difference Method within the DesignBuilder software, and examines three configurations: a reference configuration, classic Trombe wall, and Trombe wall with multi-fold glazing. The results demonstrate that the last configuration achieves a 63 % (24,94 kWh/m2) reduction in total energy consumption compared to the reference configuration and a 34 % (7,62 kWh/m2) reduction compared to the classic Trombe wall. Additionally, the implementation of sustainable ecological biomaterials, such as timber instead of concrete, is explored to reduce CO2 emissions. Further analysis of the Trombe wall with multi-fold glazing is conducted by considering five parameters: glazing type, emissivity, vent size, insulation, and PCM thicknesses. These parameters are examined across five different variables. Reducing emissivity leads to reductions of 51 % and 30 % in heating energy consumption and discomfort hours, respectively. Modifying the type of glazing results in an 11 % reduction in heating energy consumption. Increasing insulation thickness leads to notable reductions of 15 % in heating energy consumption and 6 % in discomfort hours. Conversely, increasing PCM thickness and vent size yields had minimal impact on total energy consumption, each resulting in a 1 % reduction. This research provides insights into optimizing Trombe walls by integrating multi-fold glazing to address summer overheating issues and by exploring additional parameters to enhance system performance.