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The impact of indoor air distributions on the thermal performance of a single layer semi-transparent photovoltaic facade

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  • Building Thermal, Lighting, and Acoustics Modeling
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Abstract

For the first time, the impact of indoor air distributions on the thermal and power performances of single layer semi-transparent photovoltaic (SL-STPV) facades was investigated in this study. A novel two-dimensional steady-state heat transfer model for SL-STPV facades was developed and experimentally validated, which is capable to simulate the operating temperature of PV modules in non-uniform thermal environment, and then evaluate the power generation capacity as well as the heat gain of SL-STPV facades for building-integrated applications. In addition, the thermal and power performances of SL-STPV facades were numerically investigated for two typical indoor air distribution systems, named displacement ventilation (DV) and mixing ventilation (MV) systems. The results revealed that the indoor air distribution slightly influenced the average operating temperature of PV module, but greatly affected the heat gain of SL-STPV facades. The heat gain of SL-STPV facades in DV system was reduced 11.7%, in compared with that in MV system. Thus, the DV system is suggested to be adopted in buildings installed with SL-STPV facades, to achieve a better overall energy performance.

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciated the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51408391, No. 51528804 and No. 51808372). The work was also supported by Scientific and Technological Innovation Programs of Higher Education Institutions in Shanxi (No. 201802046) and Application Foundation Research Plan of Shanxi Province (No. 201801D221348). The Opening Funds of State Key Laboratory of Building Safety and Built Environment and National Engineering Research Center of Building Technology (No. BSBE2018-02) was also acknowledged.

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Correspondence to Yuanda Cheng or Jie Jia.

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Yang, J., Cheng, Y., Jia, J. et al. The impact of indoor air distributions on the thermal performance of a single layer semi-transparent photovoltaic facade. Build. Simul. 12, 69–77 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-019-0516-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-019-0516-6

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