Hybrid Roof Panels for Night Cooling and Solar Energy Utilization in Buildings

Energy Procedia 74 ( 2015 ) 177 – 183 ScienceDirect 1876-6102 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4 .0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the Euro-Mediterranean Institute for Sustainable Development (EUMISD) doi: 10.1016/j.egypro.2015.07.541 International Conference on Technologies and Materials for Renewable Energy, Environment and Sustainability, TMREES15 Hybrid roof panels for night cooling and solar energy utilization in buildings 2QGĜHM Šikula*, Petra VojkĤvková, -LĜt Šíma, Josef Plášek, Günter Gebauer Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering, VeveĜí 331/95, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic Abstract The aim of this contribution is to evaluate the usability of solar hybrid panels, which were originally optimized for heat load removal from buildings by radiation against the night sky, for water preheating. First we created a surrogate model based on CFD simulations defining performance of the panel dependent on changing boundary conditions. This model was then implemented to the water heating model created in TRNSYS software. Estimated hot water usage would suffice for operation of 2 restaurant facilities in a building of our interest. Subsequent simulations were carried out using reference year climate data for Brno (Central Europe). Results demonstrated that in the given conditions, the average annual efficiency of solar energy usage is 55 %. The results also showed that the system is able to cover approximately 7 % of the heat demand for water heating. . © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Peer-review under responsibility of the Euro-Mediterranean Institute for Sustainable Development (EUMISD). Keywords: Night sky cooling; Solar hot water heating; Surrogate model; Numerical simulation; CFD simulation; TRNSYS; 1. Introduction Night sky cooling represents a method of passive cooling of buildings. It is based on the principle of heat radiation from hot surface of a solar panel against the cold night sky. Temperature of the night sky on the atmospheric boundary layer reaches 4 K [1]. This method of cooling is preferably applicable in dry climatic conditions because high air humidity absorbs heat radiated from the ground and therefore this heat is partially emitted back. According to previous studies [2,3], the efficiency of cooling collectors is affected not only by relative * Corresponding author.Tel.: +420 541 147 923; fax: +420 541 14 7922. E-mail address: [email protected] Available online at www.sciencedirect.com © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the Euro-Mediterranean Institute for Sustainable Development (EUMISD) 178 Ondrej Šikula et al. / Energy Procedia 74 ( 2015 ) 177 – 183 humidity, but also by other climatic conditions. Therefore, the evaluation of passive solar cooling efficiency against the night skyis primarilybased on local climate data [4]. This paper builds on previous article [5], in which the applicability of the night sky cooling in context of climatic conditions in the Czech Republic was assessed by simulation method. The research was applied on a specific office building with varying occupancy parameters, settings of natural ventilation, different heat sources from lights etc. This model examined the effect of climatic conditions on energy performance of the panel throughout the year. The assessed model of the whole system employed heat activation of concrete floor system (TACC) used for storage of cold in reinforced concrete slabs. Results showed that the night sky cooling has favourable impact on interior temperature leading to decrease of the temperature to optimal value. These results were supported by calculated PMV and PPD parameters. The aim of this paper is to evaluate usability of these hybrid roof panels during daytime. These panels might serve during daytime as solar collectors for pre-heating of hot water. Daily heat demand for restaurants is set as 0.389 MWh. Article [6] deals with optimization of water heaters. Article [7] presents design of a suitable water heating system of water heating using solar and heat pumps in six different ways. Literature [8] provides a life cycle assessment of solar systems used for heating of hot water. Article [9] presents a comparative study between solar and conventional heating of water and [11] presents analyses of combined solar systems. Study [12] deals with comparison of the design methods of hot water storage tanks. Article [13] provides an overview of technology and installation and summarizes behavior of the photovoltaics used for hot water heating. Economic analysis of solar hot water heating system is described in [14]. Different types of water heating systems are analyzed in terms of economic characteristics and impacts on global warming in article [15]. Study [16] investigates the efficiency of different types of home heating system in terms of energy use. Articles [17] and [18] deal with Legionella pneumophila in hot water systems and its negative impact on human health. Nomenclature c specific heat capacity [J/(kg·K)] I specific solar irradiation [W/m2] m mass flow [kg/s] Q2D performance of hybrid panel in 2D model [W/m] Q performance of hybrid panel [W] q densitiy of heat flux [W/m2] t temperature [°C] w wind velocity [m/s] TACC thermal activation of concrete ceiling Subscripts e external m heat transfer medium in panel in enters out leaving 2D two dimensional 2. Methods Thermal performance of panels is dependent on both climatic and operating conditions. The most important parameters influencing the panel heat gains are solar radiation intensity I, outside air temperature te,windvelocityw as climatic parameters and mean temperature of the medium in the panel tmas an operating parameter. Ondrej Šikula et al. / Energy Procedia 74 ( 2015 ) 177 – 183 179 24.0 23.4 22.8 22.2 21.6 21.0 20.4 19.8 19.2 18.6 18.0 6.0 5.4 4.8 4.2 3.6 3.0 2.4 1.8 1.2 0.6 0.0 146 800 mm 14 2.1 CFD simulations Nine combinations of boundary conditions (variant A to I) were suggested for determination of performance characteristic of the panels. Heat accumulation of the panels was neglected. Performance of one hybrid panel in W/m was calculated by CFD method using ANSYS Fluent software. Geometry of the simulated panel was identical to the panel used in [5] and it is displayed in Fig. 1a. a Air outlet Steel pipe Ø 28/1.5 mm 750 mm 150 mm b Air inlet Aluminium sheet Aluminium leg Roof Outflow Wall Fluid Velocity inlet Internal heat Wall Fig. 1. (a) Geometry of the panel; (b) Boundary conditions used in ANSYS Fluent. Climate data used in simulation represent typical climatic conditions of the given location. Energy absorbed into volume heat source was determined from intensity of solar radiation incident on the surface of aluminum coating of the plate. This energy was inserted into our model as internal energy source. A set of simulations was created for each parameter – the solar radiation intensity I, the wind velocity w and the temperature difference ¨tbetween outside air temperature te and the mean temperature of medium tm. Only one examined parameter was changed in each set of simulations, other parametersremained constant. Air in our model was considered as incompressible. Realisable k-İturbulence model with the standard wall function was selected. Turbulence intensity was defined as 10% and with hydraulic diameter 0.5 m. All the simulations were fully converged by iterative solver. ab Fig. 2. ANSYS Fluent results – case E – (a) Static temperatures [°C]; (b) Velocity [m/s]. Functional dependence of the intensity of solar radiation I, the wind velocity w and the temperature difference ¨t on the heat performance of 1 m of the panel was defined using composed least squares method. This surrogate model of usable panel performance [W/m] is based on Equation 1. 180 Ondrej Šikula et al. / Energy Procedia 74 ( 2015 ) 177 – 183 Q 2D = 47.95 · ༰(0.001503823057804 · I + 0.216773256103872) · (1.17155948187826 · w -0.108745632493307) + ሺۛͲǤͲͲͲʹͷͳʹ͵͸͸Ͷ · ( t e ۛ t m)4 + 0.00264445004 · ( t e ۛ t m)3 - 0.02184781074 · ( t e ۛ t m)2 + 0.29250805389 · ( t e ۛ t mሻۛͲǤʹʹʹ͵ʹ͸ͷͻͷሻ༱ (1) Then we created a testing set of simulations – see Table 1 – on which we verified results from CFD method and results from approximation equation. Figure 2 displays a graphical comparison of outputs from CFD simulation and results from surrogate model. Figure 3 shows the outputs from variant E. Table1. Variants and boundary conditions for CFD simulations. Simulation ѐt[°C] te[°C] tm[°C] w[m/s] ITOT [W/m2] Simulation A 115147,4200 Simulation B 2 17 15 6,6 280 Simulation C 319165,8360 Simulation D 4 21 17 5 440 Simulation E 5 23 18 4,2 520 Simulation F 625193,4600 Simulation G 7 27 20 2,6 680 Simulation H 8 29 21 1,8 760 Simulation I 931221840 Fig. 3. Thermal performenace Q2D ofthepanel dependingonsolarintensityI. 2.2 Surrogate model of solar panel This study is focused on hybrid solar panels. In this contribution they are studied mainly as an alternative method of decreasing building’s thermal load – cooling by radiation against the night sky [5]. Two parallel connected panel fields are considered, each field containing 50 lamellae with length 1 m. Geometry of the lamella is shown in Figure 1a. Surrogate model was designed in EXCEL application. Thermal performance of panel fields is calculated from equation [1] derived from 2D model of one lamella. The panel model considers constant temperature of fluid in each lamella tube. Thermal capacity of panels was neglected. The outlet water temperature of the sub-panels is calculated in 1 meter step from the calorimetric equation [2]. The outlet water temperature is used as inlet temperature to the next lamella – the panels are connected in series . The water mass flow in the primary circuit is Ondrej Šikula et al. / Energy Procedia 74 ( 2015 ) 177 – 183 181 Q=m.c. (tout -tin) contemplated as 0.14 kg/s, thus in one panel field the water mass flow is equal to 0.07 kg/s. (2) Than we applied following restrictive conditions into the model that ensure the operation of solar panels only at suitable climatic and operating conditions: xtemperature of external air must be higher than 10 °C, xoutlet water temperature tout must be higher than 17 °C., xsolar radiation intensity I must be higher than 50 W/m2. 2.3 Simulations in TRNSYS Thermal performance of the hybrid panels was evaluated using building energy simulation software TRNSYS. This software allows calculating hour by hour desired quantities of a modeled system. Software works with predefined device components, while the model itself was inserted using programmed EXCEL application. Climate data used for the software calculation represent typical meteorological year [TMY] commonly used in simulation software; in this case we used data for Brno (Central Europe). A connection diagram of the hybrid panels in switch mode between night and day operation is shown in Figure 4. The cooled water from the panels flows directly to activated concrete TACC core and reduces thermal load of the office spaces during nightime, but during daytime water may be heated and used for pre-heating of water for restaurants. Primary panel circuit transfers the heat through heat exchanger surfaces, which preheat the cold water pipeline of 14 °C. Than the pre-heated water flows into a storage tank, where this water is heated on desired temperature by gas boiler. Amount of the hot water consumption is presumed for 2 restaurant facilities located in lower floors of the building. These canteens manage to serve food for up to 3000 diners per day. The restaurant facilities are in service only during weekdays. Chart of predicted hot water demands is shown in Fig 5. This study considers only model with daytime operation of the facilities. Pre cooling of the primary circuit water due to radiation against the night sky is not considered. This would further increase the efficiency of the panels. Fig. 4. A connection diagram. Field 2 50 lam. Field 1 50 lam. CW HW Buffer storage CCW 0.14 kg/s Cooling Exchanger Boiler Nocturnal operation Daily operation 182 Ondrej Šikula et al. / Energy Procedia 74 ( 2015 ) 177 – 183 Fig. 5. Predicted hot water demands during a typical day. 3. Results and discussion Our simulations were carried out for the whole reference year. Thermal performance of the hybrid panel fields, the heat exchanger and the gas boiler were determined from results of our simulations. Results show that these panels could be used for pre-heating of water with annual year efficiency 55 % in climatic conditions of Central Europe. At certain time during the reference year effectiveness higher than 100 % was achieved. This occurs when there is low intensity of solar radiation and the outside air temperature is higher than the temperature of fluid entering the panels. The average efficiency of the heat exchanger was calculated as 90.2 % Figure 6 discusses combined coverage of heat demand by the solar panel, which transfers heat through the walls of the heat exchanger to cold water, and by the gas boiler, which heats this water in storage tank. Usage of the solar panel during the summer time – from early May to late September – supplies in total 2.83 MWh for this period into the storage tank, which makes 7.1% of the total energy demand for heating of water. The highest thermal performance of the panels was recorded in July, when the solar device covered 10% of energy demand and daily average supply was 0.026 MWh. Furthermore it was shown that the solar panels are ineffective for pre-heating of hot water outside the summer season. a b Fig. 6. (a) Coverage of heat demand Q[MWh] during the year; (b) Relative coverage of heat demand Q[%] 4. Conclusions This contribution dealt with determination of efficiency of the hybrid solar panel designed and optimized for heat load removal of the building using radiation against the cold night sky and possibility of usage of the panel for pre- Ondrej Šikula et al. / Energy Procedia 74 ( 2015 ) 177 – 183 183 heating of water. Fluid in the primary circuit of the panels is cooled during nighttime and removes accumulated thermal load by cooling floor slabs. During daytime the hybrid solar panels utilize solar energy for pre-heating of hot water. To perform simulations we used ANSYS Fluent and TRNSYS software. The results revealed minor but not negligible effect of the hybrid solar panels on hot water heating during daytime. Acknowledgements This contribution has been supported by projects »Excellent young researcher at Brno University of Technology« reg.no. CZ.1.07/2.3.00/30.0039 and also with a Specific research project at Brno University of Technology reg.no. FAST-S-14-2372. References [1] BlissRW. Atmospheric radiation near the surface of the ground: A summary for engineers. Solar Energy 1961;5:103 -120. [2] Saitoh TS, Fujino T, Saitoh TS, Fujino T. Advanced energy -efficient house (HARBEMAN house) with solar thermal, photovoltaic, and sky radiation energies (experimentalresults). Solar Energy 2001;70:530-533. [3] Shaviv E. Climateand building design - tradition,researchand designtools. Energyand Buildings. 1984; 7-1, p. 55-69. [4] Zhang S, Niu J. Cooling performance of nocturnal radiative cooling combined with microencapsulated phase change material (MPCM) slurry storage. Energy and Buildings. 2012; 54, p. 122-130 [5] Sima J, Sikula O, Kosutova K, Plasek J. Theoretical Evaluation of Night Sky Cooling in the Czech Republic. Energy Procedia 2014;48:645 - 653. [6] Liao Z, Dexter AL. An inferential control scheme for optimizing the operation of boilersin multi -zone heating systems. Building Services Engineering Research And Technology2004;24:245-256. [7] Ibrahim O, Fardoun F, Younes R, Louahlia -Gualous H. Review of water-heating systems: General selection approach based on energy and environmental aspects. Building And Environment 2014:259-286. [8] Crawford RH, Treloar GJ, Ilozor BD, Love PED. Comparative greenhouse emissions analysis of domestic solar hot water systems. Building Research AndInformation2003;31:34-47. [9] Zheng R, He T, Zhang X, Huang Z, Deng Y. Developing situation and energy saving effects for solar heating and cooling in China. Energy Procedia, vol. 30, 2012. [10] Sahnoune F, Madani M, Zelmat M, Belhamel M. Comparative study between solar and conventional heating -economic study and environmental impact. Energy Procedia, vol. 50, 2014. [11] Missoum M, Hamidat A, Loukarfi L. Energetic performance analysis of a solar combisystem. Application to a rural house in Chief Region (Algeria). Energy Procedia, vol. 50, 2014. [12] Krippelová Z, Peráþková J. Comparison of the Design of the Storage Water Heaters According to the Technica l Standards of Central European Countries. Clima 2013, 2013. [13] Fanney AH, DoughertyBP, Richardson Jr. JO. Field test of a photovoltaic water heater. ASHRAE Transactions, vol. 1082, 2002. [14] Izquierdo S, Montañés C, Dopazo C, Fueyo N. Roof-top solar energy potential under performance-based building energy codes: The case of Spain. Solar Energy2011;85:208-213. [15] Li H, YangH. Potential applicationof solar thermal systems for hot water production inHong Kong. AppliedEnergy 2009;86:17 5-180. [16] Boait PJ, Dixon D, Fan D, Stafford A. Production efficiency of hot water for domesticuse. Energy And Buildings 2012:160 -168. [17] Ocipova D, Vranayova Z, Sikula O. RISK MANAGEMENT METHODS IN HOT WATER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS TO NEGATE HEALTHRISKS FROM MICROBIOLOGICAL CONTAMINATION. Environmental Engineering, Vols 1-3 2011:638-642. [18] Ocipova D, Vranayova Z, Sikula O. Negative Impact of Bacteria Legionella Pneumophila in Hot Water Distribution Systems on Hum an Health. Proceedings of World Academy of Science, Engineering andTechnology.2012, no. 70.