Solar heat gain factors and heat loss coefficients for passive heating concepts

Abstract

The concept of solar heat gain factor has been introduced for calculating the net energy gain of passive heating elements and other components of a building as a result of incident solar radiation. For passive heating concepts (namely, the direct gain, mass wall, water wall, Trombe wall, and solarium), exact analytical expressions have been obtained for the solar heat gain factors and the corresponding overall heat loss coefficients. These will allow a building designer to calculate immediately the overall heat gain/loss in a building. Numerical calculations have been done for typical values of solar radiation and ambient temperature of typical climatic conditions in India. The method has been compared with the other methods reported in the literature so far. A good comparison is found between the earlier methods and the method of using solar gain factors and the corresponding heat transfer values.