Experimental Study on Dynamic Thermal Response of Building Attached Photovoltaic (BAPV) Curtain Wall System

Curtain wall, as one of the architectural envelope, has been studied in this paper. Photovoltaic curtain wall (PVCW) system was attached to one of the existing room located at the Institute of Building Energy, Dalian University of Technology, China (coordinates N38.9°, E121.44°). PV modules were developed at the same laboratory and were attached to one of the south-facing exterior of the building with 500mm air gap as PVCW system. The entire width of the experimental system is 13m x 4m with the array layout of 8 x 4. The dynamic thermal response of the building indoor environment was studied during the normal working conditions of PVCW system. The result shows that the power generation efficiency of the PV module cells was 19.8%. The solar PVCW system can increase the energy-saving quantity along with improvement in the indoor environment of the building. So it is a perfect embodiment of the energy conservation and environmental protection concept.