Thermal performance study of low-e glass Trombe wall assisted with the temperature-controlled ventilation system in Hot-Summer/Cold-Winter Zone of China

Abstract

In China's hot summer and cold winter (HSCW) regions, many buildings are not centrally heated and commonly rely on energy-inefficient thermoregulation devices such as electric heaters and air conditioners. The use of Trombe walls in buildings can reduce building energy consumption by up to 30%. To investigate the potential of Trombe walls to reduce winter heat load in HSCW regions, an office building in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China, located in the HSCW region was modeled and simulated. The low-e glass Trombe wall assisted with temperature-controlled ventilation system is presented in this paper. The ventilated low-e glass Trombe wall system (TWS) was mounted on the south-facing facade of the test room. Using Energy Plus software, numerical simulations were conducted to compare and evaluate the thermal performance of the ventilated low-e glass TWS with typical walls and classic TWS. The results showed that the ventilated low-e glass TWS could improve indoor thermal comfort without air-conditioning, but not to a comfortable level. When combined with air conditioning, the ventilated low-e glass TWS could reduce heating demand by 61.4% compared to typical walls and 11.1% compared to classic TWS.

Keywords

• Trombe wall
• Thermal comfort
• Heating load
• Temperature-controlled ventilation system
• Energy plus