Study on the Operation Strategy of Ventilated Photovoltaic Windows in Hot-Summer and Cold-Winter Zone in China

Abstract This paper investigates the overall energy performance of a ventilated amorphous silicon photovoltaic (a-Si PV) window under different operation strategies in the hot-summer and cold-winter zone. A validated numerical model based on EnergyPlus was developed and utilized to simulate the thermal, power and overall energy performance of the a-Si PV window. With the integrated numerical model, the effects of air gap depth and ventilation modes on the electricity generation, energy consumption of the air conditioning system and building net energy consumption was investigated. The results indicate that the natural ventilation mode of the ventilated a-Si PV window performs best in summer while the non-ventilation mode is the best choice in winter in the hot-summer and cold-winter zone, Changsha. With the increasing of air gap depth, the net electricity use decreases first and then increases. Based on the simulation results, the optimal structure designing and ventilation operation strategy are recommended. The findings of this paper could provide guidelines for optimizing the structure and the operation strategy of the ventilated a-Si PV windows in hot-summer and cold-winter zone in China.