DIRECT USE OF SOLAR RADIATION FOR HEATING AND COOLING OF RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS IN HOT-ARID CLIMATES

The decade of the 1970's will be remembered as the era of energy crises--a time for the re-evaluation of technology, industry, and the way of life in modern society. For the first time man's dependence on energy from finite resources of fossil fuels became a major consideration. Despite the economic and political impact of the energy crisis and the uncertainty of the future availability of energy, this crisis was an enlightening lesson in energy conservation. Exploration for new sources of energy, especially the energy from the sun, became the subject for research in many institutions of higher learning. The present study and many others of this nature are the by-products of the energy crisis of the 1970's.;This study undertakes a review and evaluation of the current passive heating and cooling features used primarily in residential buildings. The suitability and efficiency of these features in hot-arid climates is one of the primary considerations. A model solar house is designed using the most suitable passive heating and cooling systems. Through computer simulation the annual energy requirements of the solar house are compared to that of a conventional house designed using current standard practice.;The weather simulation model uses the weather data generated for four cities in Iran which are used as the location for these houses. The thermal analysis and evaluations of the solar and the conventional houses indicate that the solar houses uses 82% less heating energy than that of the conventional house. The computer program used in this study does not consider the thermal effect of the passive cooling features in it calculations. When the thermal contributions of the passive heating and cooling features are considered in the overall thermal behavior of the solar house, the annual energy requirements of the building are considerably less than that indicated in the computer results presented in graph forms. In effect, it can be assessed that a properly designed solar house in hot-arid regions requires practically no purchased energy during the summer or winter months.;This study demonstrates that the direct use of solar radiation for heating and cooling of residential buildings in hot-arid regions is not only an effective and reliable alternative for conserving a significant amount of energy sources every year but also plays an important role in lowering the pollution level in the environment. Homes can be built to take advantage of the enormous amount of clean energy available from the sun.