Towards zero energy buildings: A novel passive solar house integrated with flat gravity-assisted heat pipes

Qipeng Gong, Fangcheng Kou, Xiaoyu Sun, Yu Zou, Jinhan Mo and Xin Wang

Applied Energy, 2022, vol. 306, issue PA, No S0306261921012848

Abstract: Better utilization of renewable energy is necessary to replace fossil fuels to reach low-carbon. Passive solar houses (PSHs) can be much helpful for enhancing indoor thermal comfort by solar energy instead of fossil energy. However, for the existing PSHs, solar energy absorbed by the exterior walls is used inefficiently since the exterior walls play the synthetic role of solar energy absorption, storage and release. This study proposed a novel PSH integrated with flat gravity-assisted heat pipes (the FGHP house) to overcome this drawback. A numerical model for the FGHP house was developed and validated by experiments. Several energy performance indexes were defined to evaluate the thermal process of the FGHP house. The simulation results showed that the average indoor operative temperature of the typical FGHP house reaches 16.7 °C, 6.8 °C higher than that of a reference house. The south wall and the interior walls of the FGHP house are able to store 36% of the absorbed solar energy during daytime, and release 41% of the absorbed solar energy indoors during the whole typical day, while 14% and 7% for the reference house, respectively. The FGHP house provides a new possible way to achieve zero energy buildings.

Keywords: Solar heating; Gravity-assisted heat pipe; Thermal diode effect; Thermal energy storage; Energy performance index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117981

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