Thermal Analysis of Flat and Transpired Solar Facades

Abstract

Building integrated solar technologies is important not only to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions but also to help to make the technologies more economically feasible and challenge the creativity of architects in designing buildings. In this paper, two types of solar facades for heating purposes were studied: flat and transpired aluminium plates. Mathematical models of the thermal performance of these plates were developed and verified through experiments. The thermal performances were then compared in terms of heat gains and losses under the same operational conditions. It is found that the transpired design is able to reduce heat losses and hence achieve better heat transfer: the efficiencies for the flat and transpired facades are about 30% and 80% respectively.