Heating and Cooling from the Sun

Harnessing the heating - and cooling - powers of the sun from PhysOrg.com
Imagine heat radiating from the walls of your home on a cold winter night, or the glass in your home's windows emitting cool temperatures on a scorching summer afternoon. Now imagine these systems operating on an endless supply of affordable energy – the sun. Three years ago a team of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researchers began developing an "intelligent" heating and cooling system that made these seemingly too-good-to-be-true scenarios a possibility.

Developed by Steven Van Dessel, assistant professor of architecture at Rensselaer, the patented Active Building Envelope (ABE) system uses a photovoltaic (PV) system to collect and convert sunlight into electricity. That power is then delivered to a series of thermoelectric (TE) heat-pumps that are integrated into a building envelope (the walls,windows, and roof). Depending on the direction of the electric current supplied to the TE heat-pump system, the sun's energy can actively be used to make the inside space warmer or cooler. An energy storage mechanism is also integrated to collect extra energy for use when little or no sunlight is available.

The original ABE system uses solar-panels placed on the outside walls or roof of a building. TE heat-pumps approximately one square inch in size are dispersed throughout the building's envelope. Since this system is made up of bulk materials, its implementation can be costly and impractical. Additionally, this ABE system can only be applied to new construction projects, as the TE devices need to be placed inside the building's walls, windows, and roof.

Van Dessel is leading a team of Rensselaer researchers to investigate the potential of ABE systems operating on the micrometer scale. The miniaturized system would function in a similar fashion to the original, but would use thin-film photovoltaic and thin-film thermoelectric materials instead of bulk components. The use of thin-film technologies could potentially result in extremely thin (less than 500 µm) ABE-surfaces. The very fine, transparent material would function as a thermal coating system that could be applied on to various surfaces, much like a glaze.   [...]

Comments

[amazingdrx]

Good idea conceptually using the wrong technology.

Solar is great at supplying electricity and heat from the same collectors. And cooling can be acomplished most efficiently by simply circulating fluid through pipes underground and in the homes inner structure using solar electric powered pumps.

Then extra heat in cold climates can be harvested using a heat pump that retrieves heat from those underground pipes. and extra cooling can be extracted in hot climates by using the heat pump in reverse to boost the cooling capacity of ground coolness.

Thermal electric cooling is very inefficient. not a viable air conditioning technology, especially when drive by relatively inefficient solar electric cells.

[heating]

If you have looked into solar energy as a method for heating your home, panels are usually the first things that come up.

There are, however, other unique methods.

The Solar Heating Aspect You Have Never Heard of Before

The power of the sun is immense. The energy in one day of sunlight is more than the world needs. The problem, of course,

is how does one harness this power. Solar panels represent the obvious solution, but they have their downside. First,

they can be expensive depending upon your energy needs. Second, they do not exactly blend in with the rest of your home.

Passive solar heating represents a panel free method of harnessing the inherent energy found in the sun for heating

purposes. If you come out from a store and open the door of your car in the summer, you understand the concept of passive

solar heating. A wide variety of material absorbs sunlight and radiates the energy back into the air in the form of heat.

Passive solar heating for a home works the same way as the process which overheats your car in the parking lot.

[Brett]

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[Texas Air Conditioning Guy]

Geothermal is a good system but not a long temr solution to the energy problem. personally I like houses built underground such as earth ships andd the like which reduce the problem at its source. I know this is not always practical due to ground water levels and etc but it would solve 85% of our problem where it lies at the source. For info on some good high efficient air conditioners and heaters for us upper earth bound folks check out this website. {{Link | title=Ra-Jac Air Conditioning and Heating in Galveston County.
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[Texas Air Conditioning Guy]

whoops sorry for the garbage there the href function wasn't supported I guess. I should have previewed. Anyway I like the site. keep up the good work.

[Gogeiger]

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It also cleans the air and controls themoisture level.
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[Evan]

I am work for an hvac company and I found your post very interesting.