Development & Evaluation of an Assessment Model of Trombe Wall Energy Performnce

Session 4 Paper 5, CIBSE Technical Symposium, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool
11-12 April 2013

Passive solar systems have the potential to provide a significant contribution to reducing the energy consumption and the environmental footprint of buildings, at a relatively low life-cycle cost. Nevertheless they represent a considerable challenge in the context of building energy performance evaluation, which hinders expansion of their successful application in the building stock. The monthly methodology of ISO 13790 has many strengths, but still provides very limited capability for evaluating passive solar systems within the existing inventory of models. The simplified Trombe wall model presented in this paper is intended to narrow this capability gap by building on the foundations, laid out by previous models, a nimble algorithm that can blend well within the overall scheme of the standard’s methodology. The model is developed through an experimental study involving a large set of dynamic simulations. A second stage of this study is under way, in order to increase the scope and reliability of the model, while dedicated physical experiment on a test site, constructed specifically for the purpose, will be used for its validation.