A Study on the Thermal Performance of Air-Type BIPVT Collectors Applied to Demonstration Building

Abstract

Research on existing air-type PVT (photovoltaic/thermal) collectors has mainly focused on improving the efficiency of the collector itself and on using the energy produced by the collector in heating and cooling facilities and building energy. The first consideration in an air-type PVT system applied to a building facade is the collector arrangement and the flow path considering the collector performance. It is necessary to design the flow inside the air-type BIPVT (building integrated photovoltaic/thermal) collector so that it runs smoothly so as not to cause a dead space and a pressure drop inside the collector, which deteriorate the thermal performance. This study analyzed the thermal characteristics of an air-type BIPVT collector applied to a demonstration building (educational buildings) according to the air flow path and inlet opening ratio. For this purpose, the uniformity of the airflow in the collector was compared through the NX computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program, and the acquired thermal calories and thermal efficiency of the BIPVT collector were compared and analyzed. Based on the simulation results, the temperature and thermal characteristics of the BIPVT collector were compared.

Keywords

• air-type BIPVT (building integrated photovoltaic/thermal)
• air flow
• CFD (computational fluid dynamics)
• thermal efficiency
• demonstration buildings