Investigation on the application of solar chimney for multi-storey buildings

This paper presents investigation on the use of solar chimney (SC) in high-rise building. To this end, two small scale models of a three storey building were built. The floor dimensions of each storey are 1.2 x 2 x 1 m. Solar chimneys were integrated into the south-faced walls of one unit whereas the other unit served as a reference. Two design configurations were considered including connected and non-connected solar chimney: The first is a tall SC with an inlet opening at each floor and one outlet opening at the third floor. While for the second, an inlet and outlet openings were installed at each floor. Data recorded included room temperature, air gap temperature and velocity of the induced air flow in the solar chimney. First, a comparison between the SC building models and a common model without openings (SC) demonstrated that multi-storey solar chimney is a good alternative. Room temperature of the solar chimney model was lower than the room temperature of the common model, depending on the floor level by up to 5 degrees C. Next comparison between the two SC configurations showed that the best configuration is that with an inlet opening at each floor and one outlet opening at the third floor as temperature difference between room and ambient was the lowest. Reasonable agreement between the experimental data and those derived from our mathematical model developed using electric analogies validated our model. Therefore multi-storey solar chimney is an interesting option and could be applied for hot climate like in Thailand to save energy and environment. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.