Deliverables New improved version of the simulation code AGLA for ventilated and non-ventilated facades Energy building consumption represents a very important part of the total national energy budget consumption for European Countries. Space heating and air conditioning can represent the main consumption of a building. Therefore, computing accurately the thermal gains and losses through the skin of the building represents a critical necessity. The experimental information extracted from prototypes although necessary, is not enough to draw conclusions. In addition, prototypes are expensive and the information obtained takes a long time. Thus, the use of a simulation tool to predict the thermal behaviour of facades is very useful. The code AGLA allows to predict both the overall and the detailed analysis of a facade or a set of facades with a cost of typically a few minutes of computer time to analyse a whole year. AGLA provides, by default, the most interesting values: maximum and minimum temperatures at the indoor surface, and the main heat fluxes integrated monthly and yearly. However, more detailed information can be required if necessary. The most outstanding aspect of AGLA is its capacity to analyse ventilated façades with the possibility to incorporate new technologies. This exploitable result is software. It can be classified within the specific field of science that is heat transfer. It allows predicting the thermal behaviour of a great variety of facade solutions of a building. No comparable product, as far as we know, exists. The existent software of this subject does not allow the existence of a ventilated facade or does not allow taking into account the presence of thermal insulation materials, solid-liquid phase change materials or photovoltaic panels. The basic input data are: geometry, thermo-physical and optical properties of every material and meteorological and indoor information. A bank data with most of the properties is going to be incorporated. The meteorological data can be daily values monthly integrated from which the code computes instantaneous values. The basic assumption of the models introduced is the one-dimensionality of every zone. Different zones in the height of a facade can be given, although its only connexion is through the existence of a ventilated channel. The indoor information can be computed from a overall energy balance at the building taken into account infiltrations, internal gains and heating or cooling loads. A regulation system to keep the indoor temperature in a certain range is incorporated. Production of TI plus absorber ventilated facades with lower thermal losses in winter and lower overheatings in summer The application of transparent insulation to massive building walls transforms heat loses to solar wall heating elements. For large area application unwanted solar gains in summer are important and thermal comfort requires, usually, shading elements. The concept of ventilated transparent insulation is a possibility to switch from a heating mode in winter to a cooling mode in summer. Within the research and development project, prototypes of a commercially made character have been compared.The optimization of ventilated transparent insulation is dependent on several parameters. -Ventilation gap thickness. -Inlet and outlet flow resistance. -Thermal bridges. -Heat transfer coefficients in the ventilation gap. These parameters have been investigated with the prototypes and technical solutions developed. Especially the problem of inlet and outlet design in a cost-efficient way has been adressed. Experimental results validated the theory which can give hints for further optimization. This exploitable result is a prototype product. It can be classified within the specific field of science, that is solar energy. It allows one to control the thermal behaviour of a solar transparent insulation facade of a building. Two different working modes provide thermal comfort in summer as well as in winter time. Solar gains are maximized in winter whereas they are minimal in summer due to ventilation. There is no such commercial product on the market. The product is a modular unit consisting of a glass cover, a transparent insulation layer, an absorber layer, a framing and a structure for fixing the modules to the massive wall. The product is non-transparent and used in front of a massive wall e.g. from limestone intended to store the solar heat gain. As a requirement for ventilation, there is an inlet for fresh air at the bottom of the module and an outlet for the heated air at the top. These openings have to be air-tight in winter and require minimization of thermal bridges. Production of light ventilated glass facades with both low thermal losses and overheating Energy building consumption represents a very important part of the total energy budget for European Countries. The consumption of energy in European countries has been changing in recent times. Historically, industries and transport were the main consumers of energy. Nowadays, the increasing demand of comfort in buildings has made them another important energy consumer. Besides, our society is increasingly concerned with environmental protection and that the use of large quantities of non-renewable energy sources should be reduced. As we know, the bulk of the energy consumption in a building is used to power the HVAC system. Thus, it is important to improve all the building technologies in order to reduce the final power consumption. At the same time, buildings become an efficient support for solar clean energy if we might integrate photovoltaic modules in them. This exploitable result is an improved multifunctional ventilated curtain wall. A pre-existent curtain wall model of the Robertson company has been redesigned, using the AGLA code and the experience taken from a first generation of prototypes tested in the Fraunhofer Institute of Freiburg. The criteria used to redesign the wall have considered a more efficient facade from the heat transfer point of view and making it useful to hold new construction technologies. This model was taken as a basis because it had been used previously to integrate PV modules in facades and skylights, but it has been modified to allow panels with transparent insulation materials, phase change materials and also motorised dampers, curtains or blinds. Production of PV siding ventilated facades with lower thermal losses for renovation purposes Use of PV-panel siding in renovation of building facade can, in many cases, be justified both economically and technically. The marginal costs for the amorphous silicon PV cells will be reasonable when they are integrated into other building components. Along with electric production, the PV-siding protects the building structures against wind and rain. Low convection heat losses improve the U-value of the wall and due to the lower external moisture load from driving rain, the structure will stay drier, which improves the service life time of the building envelope. PV-panels have their best electric performance at certain, moderate temperature levels, which sets requirements for the ventilation of the facade element. The ventilation air warms up due to solar radiation and heat recovery from conduction heat losses and this provides a significant potential for utilisation of solar energy by reducing the heat losses of the building. Sustainable values are also motivation for the use of PV-panel siding. The exploitable result is the experimentally tested and analysed prototype module for PV-siding building envelope renovation. Two different modules have been tested: one with PV-panel siding in front of a plain opaque wall and one wall having outer glazing in front of a window mounted on the same framing system as the PV-siding in front of the opaque wall. The wall with window includes possible supply air intake from the ventilation air space through the window framing into the room space. The results contain the analysed thermal performance of the modules in Northern European climatic conditions during heating period and summer time. The results contain information about the additional thermal resistance of the PV-siding system, electric production of the PV cell area, warming up of the ventilation air and supply air with different air flow rates and the ratio of solar energy coming directly trough the glazed area. Further analysis and optimisation of the performance parameters have been carried out by numerical simulation with AGLA simulation model, developed by UPC. Searching for OpenAIRE data... There was an error trying to search data from OpenAIRE No results available
