A novel design of solar chimney for cooling load reduction and other applications in buildings

Putting glazing alone after an air gap, expectedly, increases the heat gained by 47-56% compared to 0.7 emissivity simple bared wall. Single black and white solar shielding walls reduce the heat gain by 30 and 67%, respectively. However, the proposed design of a solar chimney with a glass outer wall followed by a porous foam metal layer on its inner surface, reduced thermal gain by 67-79%. This results in electrical cooling load reduction by about 28%. Furthermore, the heated airflow induced by a solar chimney formed with a 20 × 3 m south wall can be utilized to induce water evaporation of 625-1046 kg/day allowing active evaporative cooling and/or water desalination under solar irradiation condition of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia