Category: Solar Space Heating and Cooling

The greatest disadvantage of a solar heating system is that a large number of collectors need to be shaded or disconnected during summertime to reduce the danger of overheating. A way to avoid this problem and increase the viability of the solar system is to employ a combination of space heating and cooling and domestic…

The quest for a safe and comfortable environment has always been one of the main preoccupations of the human race. In ancient times, people used the experience gained over many years to utilize in the best possible way the available resources to achieve adequate living conditions. Central heating was pioneered by the Romans, using double…

Systems for space heating are very similar to those for water heating, described in the previous chapter; and because the same considerations apply to both systems for combination with an auxiliary source, array design, over-temperature and freezing, controls, and so on, these will not be repeated. The most common heat transfer fluids are water, water…

Passive solar heating systems require little, if any, non-renewable energy to function. Every building is passive in the sense that the sun tends to warm it during the day and it loses heat at night. Passive systems incorporate the solar energy collection, storage, and distribution into the architectural design of the building and make minimal…

When estimating the building thermal load, adequate results can be obtained by calculating heat losses and gains based on a steady-state heat transfer analysis. For more accurate results and for energy analysis, however, transient analysis must be employed, since the heat gain into a conditioned space varies greatly with time, primarily because of the strong…