Solar Architecture Research Articles

A theoretical study on area compensation for non-directly-south-facing solar collectors

Solar energy integrated with the building is an important approach for the synchronous development of solar energy and architecture. The energy gain of the solar collector integrated with the pitched roof has been greatly influenced by the roof azimuth and tilted angle. Investment cost of the collectors is mainly decided by the size of the collector area. Accordingly, it is significant for solar building design to economically determinate the area compensation of the solar collector at different azimuth and tilted angles. Take Kunming and Beijing as examples, area compensation for the flat-plate tube-fin solar collector used in southern regions and the evacuated tube collector with cylindrical absorbers used in northern regions in China have been theoretically calculated. The results to some extent show that the daily horizontal solar radiation, ambient temperature, the azimuth and tilted angle of the collector integrated into the roof have an influence on the area compensation. The azimuth angle and tilted angle of the roof are the main factors that influence the A/ A 0, which is defined as the collector area ratio of the non-south-facing collectors to the south-facing ones with the optimal tilted angle. Comparative studies found that the range of A/ A 0 for the evacuated tube collector used in the northern regions is close to that for the flat-plate tube-fin solar collector used in the southern regions. When the pitched roof tilted angle β ∈ [25°, 45°] and the azimuth angle ∣ γ∣ ⩽ 30°, the collectors can intercept a lot of solar radiant-energy. Considering the economic situations of the ordinary consumers in China, the optimal area compensation A/ A 0 ⩽ 1.30 is recommended in this paper.

Solar architecture in cool climates

Preface * North Sun Context * Multiple and Added Solar Value * Environmental Comfort and Well-being * Adaptive Control * Passive Control * Machine Control * Green Solar Future * Index

Design development of a static sunshade using small scale modeling technique

The rising global demand for energy has triggered emphasis on conservation of energy. Buildings are one of the important energy consuming sectors. Passive solar architecture encompasses a wide range of strategies and options resulting in energy efficient building design and increased occupant's comfort. Passive solar design, aiming at increasing direct solar gains during winter period and to avoid overheating during summer period should make use of specific shading devices over energy efficient window. The static sunshades are most effective for solar control inside the buildings. Countries like India have composite climate, which can be classified under summer, winter and rainy season. Depending on the seasonal requirements, this paper introduces a new geometry of a static sunshade, designed by calculating the sun angles for the two dates. The static sun shading design methodology is validated with the help of small scale modeling experimentation technique, carried out in Pilani, Rajasthan (India). Although insulating materials can be used as a part of a building structure, its feasibility should be checked before particular application. In the present paper, the two small-scale experimental models of actual construction material with varying static sunshades, i.e. horizontal and the proposed one have been constructed and analyzed with the models of insulating material (Polyurethane Foam [PUF]). Depending upon the solar intersection over south facade wall, sunlit area and shaded area have been correlated with temperature inside the models to decide the effectiveness of the proposed sunshade.

Repairing the American Metropolis: Common Place Revisited

Review: Repairing the American Metropolis: Common Place Revisited By Douglas Kelbaugh Reviewed by Ryder W. Miller San Francisco, USA Douglas Kelbaugh. Repairing the American Metropolis: Common Place Revisited. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002. 272 pages. ISBN 0-295-98204-7(trade paper); 0-295-98230-6 (cloth). US$29.95 trade paper; US$50.00 cloth. Acid-free and recycled from 10% post-consumer and at least 50% pre-consumer waste. David Kelbaugh retells and explains the guiding historical/philosophical and ideological trends that have impacted modern architecture and urban design. Here told are the movements which have shaped what we see in our urban environment, the buildings themselves being a dialogue between Modernism, Postmodernism, Deconstructionism, Phenomenology, and so forth. Also explained are the Green Building, and Environmental and Solar Architecture. There is also discussion of High-Tech Architecture and Historic Preservation and Critical Regionalism of which Kelbaugh writes In the end, respect for place, nature, history, craft, and limits will precipitate a Critical Regionalism (p. 93). But Kelbaugh, Dean of the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan, also explains their faults and limitations (as well as a Typology: the Architecture of Limits). On the Urban Design side, the work also advocates for the utopian New Urbanism in contrast to the less pragmatic Post Urbanism and Everyday Urbanism. Kelbaugh writes, Imperfect as it is, New Urbanism is substantially and, in many cases, spectacularly better than conventional suburbs. ... In so many ways New Urbanism is a win-win proposition. Sound design and community planning, healthy and sustainable ecology, economic and social diversity, and good governance can all fit into the New Urbanist canon. Rarely do so many ethical, environmental, social, and economic entries fall on the positive side of the ledger (p. 180). Kelbaugh relays the importance of environmental issues like urban sprawl and open space. He recommends regulating sprawl, to take advantage of opportunities to promote suburban infill instead, and to create open space. Kelbaugh suggests that we can eliminate costly urban sprawl by eliminating artificially cheap land and artificially cheap energy (gasoline). Kelbaugh eloquently defends the need for Open Space: Shared open and enclosed space is a critical element in establishing a sense of community and

Solar electric glass architecture initiative

California-based XsunX has launced a new development initiative to increase the opportunity for the integrated use of its patented solar electric glass technology in modern building design and construction. Visit www.re-focus.net for the latest renewable energy industry news

Experimental studies and economic considerations on a living space heated through passive solar gain and through electric power

The Trombe wall, of an area AT = 8.8 m, built on the southern facade of a room, heats the accommodation during the transition months, complementary to electric power. The statistical processing of the experimental data led to a global quantitative image of the wall?s behavior during the average day of the months March, April, September, and October 1999. The inner climate parameters are: tint = = 21 ?C, trad = 17.9 ?C, troom= 19.5 ?C, j= 35-70%, E ?80 + 120 lx. The thermal comfort factor is B = -0.325. These values insure a room?s comfort close to the optimal one prescribed by the hygienists. The heliothermal conversion?s efficiency is hT = 10.4%. The proportion of heat supplied by the wall in the entire energy required by the room is hheat = 45.8%. The wall?s specific cost is Pu = 24.9 ? /m. The write-off period of the initial investment is n = 53 years. The development of passive solar architecture in the Euro-region Danube-Cris-Mures-Tisa which includes the town of Timisoara (45? north, 22? east), was proven feasible by the experiments from both the energy and the economical point of view.

IDEA: Interactive Database for Energy‐efficient Architecture

The project IDEA – Interactive Database for Energy‐efficient Architecture – is a multinational collaborative project to build a European knowledge base on advanced energy conscious building design. At the core of this project are two earlier multimedia developments, the Swiss program DIAS and the German adaptation NESA which present the principles and applications of solar architecture in the respective national contexts. IDEA aims to improve know‐how of European professionals and exchange of information between them. The database includes information on exemplary buildings, their technical concepts and on other specific conditions. IDEA presents the existing state of the art in the field of energy‐efficient architecture by means of a multimedia database of built examples, an encyclopedia of design concepts and a set of interactive design support tools. The built examples have been selected from around Europe. IDEA assembles technical information on materials and energy‐related standards and regulations and provides climatic data from all relevant European regions.

Solar architecture for the happiness of mankind

Solar architecture for the happiness of mankind

Aerogels: Production, modification and applications

AbstractAerogels are highly porous, nanostructured sol‐gel derived materials. In the nineteen sixties and seventies highly transparent and monolithic silica aerogels have mainly been used in Cherenkov detectors to determine the momentum of relativistic particles. After an increasing availability of granular SiO2‐aerogels from a BASF pilot plant in the eighties, applications of these materials in solar architecture (especially for daylighting purposes and transparent thermal insulations) have been investigated. Today, additionally research focuses on metalloxide‐, organic‐ and carbon‐aerogels. The applications range from acoustic impedance matching layers in ultrasonic transducers to subtrates for catalytic materials, transparent molds for melt casting, sensors, electrodes in supercapacitors and fuel cells as well as capture of cosmic dust and micrometeorits. Particularly interesting with respect to mass applications is the use of aerogel powder in the evacuated superinsulation of the BMW latent heat storage device which can be employed to defrost the windshield or to preheat the engine. A broad availability of cheap aerogels is expected from a production process based on subcritical drying (versus supercritical extraction in an autoclave) currently persued by Hoechst AG.

Sunlight therapy and solar architecture.

Les proprietes therapeutiques des rayons ultra-violets sont utilisees depuis le debut du siecle pour traiter la tuberculose et d'autres maladies, grâce aux travaux du Docteur N. Finsen qui fut le premier medecin a utiliser les rayons ultraviolets en clinique

Technologies for spacecraft electric power systems

There is a growing push within the federal government and many private sector space organizations to build and launch spacecraft that are smaller, that can be built and deployed quicker, and that cost less. Even in the classic large communications satellites there is a push to reduce the utility mass so that more transponders can be added or the launch mass reduced, or some combination of both. Furthermore, there is pressure to spin off technologies into the commercial sector as well as to spin in technologies to the space program. The classic electrical power system consists of the power source, energy storage, and power management and distribution (PMAD). This article addresses these electrical power technologies, including high-performance photovoltaic devices, solar dynamic systems, batteries, and PMAD architectures, showing that in each case new technologies are available that can reduce the overall mass of the electrical power system by at least 50%.

Solar benefits for mass housing in South Africa

The South African Government intends to build one million houses and to electrify 2. 5 million homes in the next 5 years. Only once in a nation's lifetime does such an opportunity occur for solar and low-energy architecture to benefit all. Solar power, solar hot water and thermal design of housing present substantial savings to home owners and the nation. Legislation is presently emerging.

96/00611 20th National Passive Solar Conference Proceedings

The 19th National Passive Solar Conference was held June 25--30, 1994 in San Jose, California to provide a forum for state-of-the-art work in solar technologies. Technical papers were presented on the following topics: solar architecture, performance and analysis of passive systems; design tools; thermal mass; daylighting; passive cooling; sustainability; implementation issues; and education. Papers have been processed separately for inclusion on the data base.

95/04073 Solar architecture in the tropics

95/04073 Solar architecture in the tropics

95/04045 Ecologically responsible design, solar architecture and the mythology of the glass tower

Recent architectural projects by leading designers have incorporated innovative measures to improve energy efficiency in response to the concerns of ecologically responsible design. A remarkable feature of these buildings is the form that they have taken, that of the glass tower. This paper explores the use of `glass-tower` as a metaphor of ecologically responsible design, and asks whether recent `vanguard` office buildings are good models of green architecture. It is concluded that uncritical use of the `green` glass-tower design concept, without sufficient consideration of the complex environmental problems associated with glass-tower, make an alliance between ecologically responsible design and the glass-tower a less than ideal proposition, especially over the long term. (author). 1 tab., 5 figs., refs.

A new method for determination of the optical constants and thermal radiation properties of semi-transparent films

It is believed that the use of transparent insulation materials (TIM) is prospective in the fields of solar energy and architecture engineering. Semi-transparent films are the basic constituents of some TIM, e.g., honeycomb structure. Two most important characteristics of semi-transparent films are their transmittance for solar radiation and emittance for long wave thermal radiation. In this paper, a technique for determining the optical constants of these films is presented. The thermal radiation properties of several semi-transparent films are reported.

Relationship between optical transparency and nanostructural features of silica aerogels

Silica aerogels are considered to be of great promise for use in transparent thermal insulation systems in solar architecture. The optical transparency of these highly porous materials is influenced by the reaction parameters upon preparation and the precursor used. Previously it was shown that the specific extinction due to bulk scattering decreases both with increasing macroscopic density and increasing pH-value of the sol-gel starting solution. Recently, it was also found that within the measurement accuracy the light scattering intensity of the aerogel bulk equals the extrapolated small-angle X-ray scattering intensity towards scattering angle zero if both types of measurement are performed with respect to an absolute scale. In the meantime, ultra small-angle X-ray scattering measurements have been performed in order to close the gap in momentum space between light and conventional small-angle X-ray scattering. As a result it can be stated that the nearly isotropic (Rayleigh) scattering is caused by the same nanostructural inhomogeneities of the aerogel network which lead to the characteristic small-angle scattering pattern. As a consequence, the amount of isotropically scattered light and thus the optical extinction can be directly related to a quantity called the correlation volume. For a variety of silica aerogels, it is shown how the latter depends on the nanostructural features of the gel network, such as average particle size, interparticle arrangement, pore diameter and an ordering parameter, which accounts for concentration effects.

Living with the Sun: Modern Technology in Solar Architecture

Living with the Sun: Modern Technology in Solar Architecture

Photovoltaic systems and architecture

Abstract Various aspects associated with photovoltaic systems integrated into architecture are described. The importance of electricity generation from the sun to be understood by architects is emphasized. Owing to the earnest movement of the Japanese government to promote the use of photovoltaic systems to the public, the guidance for installing photovoltaic arrays have been publicized for users and architects in such a way that solar power may be directly connected with the existing electrical grid. Discussions are made as to how the photovoltaic modules can be integrated with the roof surfaces of buildings, picking up some examples in the world, and international cooperation required for efficient promotion. Future prospects of solar architecture with photovoltaics integrated are presented in view of the global environmental problems.

SOLAR ARCHITECTURE

Abstract The term “solar architecture”is a very dangerous one. As we were always told, there is architecture as to create shelter for people. We have architecture for big people, small people, white people, black people, any kind of colour of people, healthy people, disabled people. And you start thinking to yourself, making these classifications. Does that help? And you probably have architecture for all of them. So there is disabled architecture or black architecture, lbelieve we should say that there isn't. It is quite simple: there is good architecture and there is bad architecture. Good architecture has to take care of all these factors, of solar energy as well. Probably there is a problem that, particularly in the later years, architects have actually not done that. But if you study history you will come to the conclusion, that the solar “factor” has always influenced good architecture? The Jama Manta Observatory in Jaipur where the Shajahan created enormous buildings to actually follow the paths of the sun, you could say are the purest form of solar architecture, but first of it is beautiful architecture. The same is true for Saint Chapel, it is very good architecture, but it is solar architecture, because it wouldn't work without the