Comparison of heating and natural ventilation in a solar house induced by two roof solar collectors

In this paper, two kinds of roof solar collectors (RSCs), namely, the single pass RSC, and the double pass RSC are analyzed and compared. The double pass roof solar collector, which is configured by integrating a double pass solar air collector with the building roof, can be operated more efficiently for space heating in winter, and for natural ventilation in other seasons. To evaluate the effects of two RSCs for both space heating and natural ventilation, a single traditional Chinese style house, on which the two RSCs will be mounted respectively, is developed. Through comparison, it is found that the instantaneous efficiency of solar heat collecting for the double pass RSC is higher than that of the single pass one by 10% on average, and natural ventilation air mass flow rate contributed by natural ventilation for the double pass RSC can be improved to a great extent for most cases, indicating that double pass RSC is superior to the single pass one from the points of view of both space heating and natural ventilation. The double pass RSC is therefore more potential for improving indoor thermal environment and energy saving of buildings.