A study of design options for a building integrated photovoltaic/thermal (BIPV/T) system with glazed air collector and multiple inlets

•We perform experiments on a prototype BIPVT system in a full scale solar simulator.•BIPVT system with multiple inlets and glazed air collector is proposed and studied.•Thermal efficiency of the BIPVT system is increased by applying multiple inlets.•The vertical glazed air heater further increases outlet air temperature.

In this paper, a prototype open loop air-based building integrated photovoltaic thermal BIPV/T system with a single inlet is studied through a comprehensive series of experiments in a full scale solar simulator recently built at Concordia University. A numerical control volume model is developed and validated based on the results from the experiments. Improved designs of a BIPV/T system with multiple inlets and other means of heat transfer enhancement are studied through simulations. Simulation results indicate that the application of two inlets on a BIPV/T collector increases thermal efficiency by about 5% and increases electrical efficiency marginally. An added vertical glazed solar air collector improves the thermal efficiency by about 8%, and the improvement is more significant with wire mesh packing in the collector by an increase of about 10%. The developed model is applied to a BIPV/T roof of an existing solar house with four simulated inlets, and the thermal efficiency is improved by 7%.