Advantages of Cairo Double Glass Photovoltaic Curtain Wall

Can a PV double-glazing ventilated curtain wall reduce cold-heat offset?

Properly increasing channel thickness and photovoltaic coverage optimizes design. To address the problems of PV facade overheating and air-conditioning cold-heat offset, this study proposed a novel PV double-glazing ventilated curtain wall system (PV-DVF) that combined PV cooling and dew-point air reheating.

How does a double-glazing PV curtain wall work?

In the hybrid system, the ventilated double-glazing PV curtain wall provided reheat energy for the subcooled supply air while effectively cooling the PV façade. It efficiently facilitated solar-electric conversion and excess heat recovery (HR), thereby enhancing the electrical and thermal performance of the building.

How does a photovoltaic curtain wall work?

A photovoltaic curtain wall coupled with an air-conditioning system is designed. Curtain wall cooling and supply air reheating are achieved using heat recovery. System performance is evaluated, taking an office in hot-humid summer as a case. The system increases power output by 1.07% and achieves 27.51% energy savings.

What is PV-DVF compared to a conventional PV double-glazing insulated curtain wall?

As a result, the reheat energy required in PV-DVF can be supplied by the curtain wall, which is exactly the innovation and advantage of PV-DVF compared to a conventional PV double-glazing insulated curtain wall (abbreviated as PV-DIF). As shown in Fig. 1, the working principle of the system is described as follows.

Does a curtain wall reduce heat gain from solar radiation?

It can be found that the heat gain through the curtain wall decreases from 394.95 W under 0.1 PV coverage ratio to −144.03 W under 0.9 PV coverage ratio. The increased PV coverage ratio means that a larger area of PV cells is covered with the glazing, thus considerably reducing the heat gain from solar radiation.

How can a curtain wall reduce energy consumption?

By introducing only a portion of the supply air into the channel, the curtain wall was able to provide sufficient reheat energy, thus avoiding the reheater power input. That is, the energy consumption of the air reheater in PV-DVF was completely reduced to zero, minimizing the serious energy waste associated with the cold-heat offset.