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Integrated system for daylighting, natural ventilation and solar heating

Deliverables

The growing awareness for the necessity to protect the environment, namely by saving energy, has brought up many infrastructure projects for buildings which use natural ventilation and day-lighting. Due to this new market need, suppliers for the European construction industry have the chance to offer new, attractive and innovative products and concepts for energy saving, natural ventilation and day-lighting. The project for an "Integrated light pipe/ passive stack ventilation/solar heating cooling unit (TRIPLESAVE unit)" fits perfectly into this market need. The basic idea is to guide daylight from the roof into the building and exhaust air out of the building at the same time using an integrated structure called light-vent pipe. In the middle of the structure is the light pipe which is a vertical pipe lined with a highly reflecting material. At the top of the pipe is a light collector. Down at the bottom end, a light diffuser spreads the light into the room. The light pipe is surrounded by an annular space which acts as a stack for the exhaust air. At the upper end of the stack is a wind terminal enhancing the flow and preventing reverse flow. To this structure a thermo-syphon based cooling system can further be integrated. The evaporator inside the room is connected through vertical pipes to the condenser on the roof. The vertical pipes, where the working fluid/vapour is flowing, can be a part of the vertical light-vent pipe structure. A study of the statistical information on the main building types and their morphology in several European countries revealed where the greatest potential for this technology exists. The most potential building types are educational, office and retail buildings as well as commercial buildings. An analysis based on the calculation of relevant economic figures showed the viability of the system for different climatic regions. The pilot system was built and intensively tested. The functioning and the viability could be proven. The know how on the design and the functioning of the whole TRIPLESAVE unit is now available for final optimisation, demonstration and industrial product development. All partners of the consortium are able to give consultancy for applying the system.

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