Solar integrated energy system for a green building

Shanghai is characteristic of subtropical monsoonal climate with the mean annual temperature of 17.6 °C, and receives annual total radiation above 4470 MJ/m2 with approximately 2000 h of sunshine. A solar energy system capable of heating, cooling, natural ventilation and hot water supply has been built in Shanghai Research Institute of Building Science. The system mainly contains 150 m2 solar collector arrays, two adsorption chillers, floor radiation heating pipes, finned tube heat exchangers and a hot water storage tank of 2.5 m3 in volume. It is used for heating in winter, cooling in summer, natural ventilation in spring and autumn, hot water supply in all the year for 460 m2 building area. The whole system is controlled by an industrial control computer and operates automatically. Under typical weather condition of Shanghai, it is found that the average heating capacity is up to 25.04 kW in winter, the average refrigerating output reaches 15.31 kW in summer and the solar-enhanced natural ventilation air flow rate doubles in transitional seasons. The experimental investigation validated the practical effective operation of the adsorption cooling-based air-conditioning system. After 1-year operation, it is confirmed that the solar system contributes 70% total energy of the involved space for the weather conditions of Shanghai.