Trombe Wall Systems

The classic example was designed by Steve Baer, a solar entrepreneur, for his own residence in New Mexico. He used 55-gallon drums that are stacked, as shown in Fig. 7.9c. The side of the drums facing the glazing are painted black, while the side facing the interior is painted white. (Any color except a polished metallic finish is a good emitter of radiant heat.) An exterior insulating shutter keeps the heat in during a winter night or out during a summer day. This shutter, when it is down on the ground, also acts as a reflector to increase the total amount of solar radiation collected. The shutter can be raised or lowered from indoors by means of a cable. Also, on a mild winter afternoon, when heating is not yet required, a curtain can be drawn across the interior side of the drums to delay the transfer of heat until it is needed.Most water walls consist of vertical tubes. If steel tubes are used, they can be painted a dark color on the glazing side and a light color on the room side. Often, however, the tubes are made of translucent or transparent plastic to allow some light to pass through (Fig. 7.9d). The water can be left clear or tinted any color. Transparent tubes are especially beautiful because of the way they refract the light. Tests have shown that clear water is almost as efficient as tinted water or opaque containers when it comes to storing heat. See the water

Water has a greater unit heat capacity than brick or cement so, for a given volume, a water wall works more efficiently than a solid wall.

A section through the Baer residence shows the insulating shutter, which is covered with a reflective surface to increase the performance of the Trombe wall.

The Trombe wall passive-solar heating system collects heat without having light enter the space.

Because of the wall's 8to 12-hour "time lag," most of the heat is released at night.

Passive Solar Space Heating

Indirect Solar Gain System

Indirect gain Trombe wall stores heat during the day. Excess heat is vented to the interior space. At night Trombe wall vents are closed and the storage wall radiates heat into the interior space.

Indirect gain water wall collects and stores heat during the day. Heat stored in indirect gain water wall is radiated into the living space at night.

A Trombe wall can consist of vertical tubes filled with water. The tubes can be opaque, translucent, or transparent. (Courtesy of and Solar Components Corporation.)

Solar barrel wall

Steve Baer | Corrales, New Mexico | 1971

During the day, thermal energy from the sun is collected and stored in a stack of 200 liter water-filled steel oil drums.

At night, the external lids are closed while the internal lid is opened, so the stored energy is
discharged to the room.

The ends of the barrels are painted black, and the shutter is made highlyreflective;

both effects together improve storage of thermal energy.

Fluidized Glass Faade

Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy | Germany | 2005

The concept consists of a four layer glazing element with two fluid filled chambers and one gas filled chamber in the middle. Colored water in the external cavity is used for control of solar gains; water in the inner cavity serves as transparent large area heating or cooling element. Heating, cooling and shading levels are regulated by controlling fluid flow levels and water color.

Chamber I Glass Chamber II Low E Chamber III

Fluidized Glass Faade

Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy | Germany | 2005
Since the presentation of Mike Davies' idea of the polyvalent faade [1], the vision of a multifunctional building skin has produced a number of technological developments taking first steps in this direction. Switchable faades with electrochromic or gasochromic glazing have been investigated for many years. Research has mainly concentrated on material and device development [2]. Large-area chromogenic devices are in the discussion for building applications. Recently a large European project has treated the architectural and technical integration of switchable devices into buildings as well as durability and lifecycle aspects [3]. Glazing companies still balk at the risk of a market introduction of glazings which can change its colour dynamically and thus change characteristic properties like total solar energy transmittance and visual transmittance. In this situation it might seem hazardous to try and incorporate even more functions into a glazing unit than the mentionedtechnologies. In spite of these considerations, it has been the goal of this research to develop a glass faade system that actively controls not only visual light transmission and the solar energy transmission but may even incorporate further processes in the building envelope The extraction and provision of heat within the transparent faade, i.e. at the interface between the artificial interior and natural exterior environments, offers the possibility to completely control the energy flows and comfort conditions at the faade. For this purpose, a four-layer glazing element with two fluid-filled cavities and one gas-filled cavity between the panes was designed (see Figure 1).The outer liquid layer in cavity I reduces the solar irradiation by absorption even in the clear state. Excess solar heat gains are kept outside. During periods of very high solar radiation, the clear fluid in the outer cavity I is replaced by a coloured one thus increasing absorption. In cavity III the liquidlayer holds the surface temperature constant at room temperature - in summer it can be cooled down whereas in winter heat can be added to the room. A heat pump could be used for providing the

temperature levels needed for these purposes. These large-area, transparent heating and cooling elements show uniform temperatures over their entire
surface, which leads to an increased interior comfort range since convection is reduced due to large areas with uniform temperatures. The gas-filled chamber II in the middle, along with the Low-E coating of the third glass pane, further reduces energy transmission in winter (heat losses) and during the summer (solar gains). Shading, heating and cooling therefore become an integral part of the glazed transparent building envelope which is adaptable to the requirements of the different seasons (Figure 2) Of course this vision is not without risk. It has to be transformed from an idea to a reliable technological system before it can be used by designersand engineers to produce completely different buildings.

Liquid faade
Ulrich Knaack | TU Delft, The Netherlands | 2006

University of Arizona

SEEDpod water wall and photovoltaic array

Summer - Day:
During daylight hours in a hot arid climate, the interior can be cooled by evaporation using low energy fans. Air is evacuated through the roof plenum. reducing the cooling load on the

space below and resultant air turbulence cools .the solar panels above. Additionally, cool
water introduced into the water wall tanks will absorb heat and reduce the cooling load.

Summer - Night:
During low humidity nights, cooling can be provided solely by cross ventilation .entering

through the lower opening in the southern wall. This can be supplemented with mechanical
systems during extreme heat or high humidity.

Winter - Day:
During winter days, air warmed by the roof .air plenum can be drawn into the interiors during the day. Water wall collects and stores heat from the sun.

Winter - Night:
During the night, the heat collected in the south wall will be allowed to radiate
into the space in order to supplement heating supplied by the mechanical system.

Water wall
The south wall consists of an insulated glass panel and a vacuum formed water wall made from recyclable PETE (poly ethylene ter ephthalate) plastic sheets separated by a vented air space . After arriving on site, the empty plastic tanks will be charged with a water-based solution drawn into the tanks via vacuum action. The water wall will absorb and hold the suns heat during the day and then radiate toward the interior at night. Exterior shades will be closed to hold the heat in the space.

Water wall
In addition to winter heating, water cooled by taking advantage of the large diurnal temperature swing could be introduced into the tanks at night in the summer to absorb heat from the ambient air in the space the next day. An aesthetic benefit of the water wall is a constantly changing translucent pattern of daylight filtered and refracted through the undulating geometry of the tanks. At night, interior light gently illuminates the water and provides privacy for the occupants.

Between the exterior envelope and the internal water wall is a gap, allowing for air movement, which provides the ability to warm or cool air as it passes along the water wall. During the summer, the tanks will be filled with cool water, and shaded on the exterior side to resist the heat and keep the interior cool. In contrast, the tanks will be charged with warm water in the winter. The water, which has three times the thermal mass capacity of concrete or brick will absorb the suns heat

during the day and re-radiate it to the interior at night.

The ability to adjust the temperature of the water within the tanks makes the water wall a desirable element in a variety of climates. Further control is provided by the ability to open or close the south water wall and roof plenums separately, allowing them to be vented independently or together.