Solar Cooling Façades

Abstract

Nowadays the use of renewable energy resources is a necessity. Approximately 13% of the energy spent in Greece comes from renewable energy resources, however a significantly higher percentage is essential in order to meet the European standards by 2020. A prompt solution is the in-situ energy generation. Additionally, the harmful emmisions of the various air-conditioning and refridgerating systems need to be eliminated. The current master thesis involves the use of solar energy for indoor temperature regulation, mainly for cooling purposes. This is achieved by the use of two different technologies; the photovoltaics and the thermoelectrics. A series of PV panels convert the solar energy to DC power, which is supplied to the thermoelectric devices. The TE modules are able to create temperature difference and depending on the direction of the DC current, they can function either for cooling or for heating. The system is 100% emission-free and can operate entirely on renewable energy. Location of the project is set to Athens, Greece, a city with rather high air-conditioning demands during summer and high solar irradiation all year long, traits which make it very favorable for a PV-TE solar cooling application. Objective of the thesis is to develop a solar cooling facade concept which, along with the implementation of passive design strategies, is able to cover the cooling and heating demands of a certain office space. Considering the context, the local climate, the prominent vernacular building strategies have been studied. Moreover, a field research and analysis of 25 case study buildings has been carried out leading to the definition of the ‘typical office building’ in Athens. Based on the typical office, a passive optimization with the implementation of multiple passive strategies has been carried out resulting in the optimum scenario. The PV and TE system has been calculated and designed according to the optimum passive scenario and is applied on a case-study building. A range of architectural possibilities is explored, based on the typical office buildings of the area.