Performance Assessment of Trombe Wall and South Façade as Applications of Building Integrated Photovoltaic Systems /

Abstract

Building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) technology can lead the world to establish sustainable buildings. Technically, this technology is struggling with low electrical power generation due to building structural limitations and elevated temperature, also performance of BIPV systems analyzed only based on their electrical output. Moreover, BIPV application as Trombe wall system significantly reduce the output power due to presence of glass in front of module. Thus, this paper presents an experimental study of two distinct BIPV wall systems and analyzed them based on their electrical, thermal and combine performance. Maximum electrical efficiency of BIPV south façade (BIPVSF) and BIPV Trombe wall (BIPVTW) was 6.02% and 3.96% respectively. The BIPVSF had a daily average thermal efficiency of 11%, whereas the BIPVTW achieved an efficiency of 38.52%. Furthermore, BIPVSF and BIPVTW systems respectively achieved daily average combine (electrical and thermal) efficiencies of 13.16% and 39.67%. The daily electrical power of BIPVSF system was 38.6% more than that of the BIPVTW but daily heat gain of BIPVTW system was 3.2 times of BIPVSF system. Despite the fact that the electrical power output is diminished when photovoltaics is used as BIPVSF and BIPVTW, the hybrid use of both systems can furnish a decent combined efficiency.