Impact of Heated Air Indirectly Produced by Photovoltaic Panels on Indoor Thermal Comfort

Abstract

Climate change is one of the most debated issues today around the world, given its global impact. The construction industry in the European Union (EU) accounts for 40% of energy consumption and 36% of greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, the continuous improvement of energy efficiency in buildings plays a key role in achieving the carbon neutrality goal by 2050. At a time when the irreversible point of global warming may have already been reached, change becomes urgent, with one of the solutions being the use of renewable energies. Among renewable energies, solar is considered not only one of the most promising ones but also one of the energies with the greatest potential growth. The accelerated use of solar PV allows a reduction of carbon dioxide of approximately 4.9 gigatonnes. In the last decades, solar panels presented a great improvement in their efficiency and power output over and, in addition to the production of electricity, their heat can also be harnessed. Therefore, the objective of this work is to study a photovoltaic panel solution in which the heat produced indirectly by it contribution to the heating of a house and, consequently, to thermal comfort. In this work, it was analysed the feasibility of a PV solution that intends to take advantage of the hot air, indirectly produced by it, for subsequent heating of a house. Numerical simulations were performed using Ansys® Fluent, Release 18.1, software and considering a 3D model of a house with PV panels installed in the roof. The results showed the solution under study is not feasible in winter, since solar radiation is not enough for heating using this contribution. However, this solution, although not avoiding the use of other heating means, can help in heating, contributing to the reduction of some needs.