Passive Cooling of Glazing Surfaces Using Solar Chimneys

Abstract

The aim of this project is to reduce the cooling loads in spaces by decreasing the window temperature and solar radiation entrance through the use of a passive evaporative cooler combined with a solar chimney and with no additional energy consumption. The cooler provides heat and mass exchange that render the air capable of cooling the space in front of the window. On the other hand, the solar chimney works based on principles of buoyancy driven natural flows. Mathematical models of the evaporative cooler, glazing section, solar chimney are developed and integrated with a space model in an algorithm where the entire system is tested under different outdoor temperature and solar radiation conditions. As the outer glass temperature typically represents the temperature of the window without the installation of this system, reductions of 8% to 12% in the window temperatures were seen for an outdoor temperature of 30oC and a solar radiation of 300Wm2 and for small chimney sizes.