Energy Efficiency and Ventilation Performance of Ventilated BIPV Walls

Abstract This study integrated building structure, heat flow mechanism and photovoltaic system to propose ventilated building-integrated photovoltaic walls. Energy efficiency of the BIPV walls was investigated via engineering considerations and computational fluid dynamics simulations. The results showed that either the flow pattern at the lower part of the channel or the indoor vent height can affect the indoor vent flow rate. When the indoor vent position was lowered and the airflow channel was widened, the indoor vent flow rate was affected by the outdoor wind velocity. As the indoor vent height increased, the induced air velocity through the indoor vent decreased. Correlations for predicting the heat removal rate and indoor heat gain were introduced.