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Archives of Heat Transfer
1988, Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia

DOI: 10.1615/ICHMT.1988.20thAHT


ISBN Print: 978-0-89116-877-5

ISSN: 0899-5311

THERMAL PROCESSES OF SOLAR HOUSES

pages 255-272
DOI: 10.1615/ICHMT.1988.20thAHT.200
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ABSTRACT

The construction of solar houses is expected to grow quite rapidly almost everywhere in the world as many people have come to recognize that the solar heating of building spaces and domestic hot water is very effecient in saving fossil fuels and thus conserves energy for our future generations. The reason for the high effectiveness of solar heating is that solar heat can be utilized at lower temperatures than in other solar applications. Though the total amoung of solar energy falling on the earth is enormous, the net amount of solar energy that can be utilized for various modes of human activity in our modern society is rather limited, if one takes into account the coexistence with plants, animals and other living creatures on this planet. It is reasonable to contemplate the use of the surface area already disrupted by human beings by utilizing roofs and walls of existing buildings and those areas to be inevitably disrupted such as surfaces of buildings to be built in the future, thus preserving meadows, fields, forests and water bodies essential to our daily lives as well as for the maintenance of the global energy balance.
Heat and mass transfer are thermal processess occuring in solar houses throughout from solar energy collection to the end use of energy in the form of space and hot water heating. It is often said that there are two basic types of solar houses: passive solar houses and active solar houses. A passive solar house is a house where space heating or cooling can be achieved imperfectly but satisfactorily without relying on mechanical means, whereas in active solar houses different mechanical components are combined to form a solar heating, cooling and hot water supply system to be installed in the house.
Thermal characteristics of the building structure stongly affect the performance of solar heating and cooling both in passive and active solar houses, but solar hot water can only be supplied through mechanical means. It would be interesting, therefore, to deal with this important problem using current theory and incorporating the state-of-the-art techhnology of heat and mass transfer in a concerted effort by architects, and the scientists and engineers of various fields.

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