Thermal performance of a solar façade system for building ventilation in the southeast of Mexico

An assessment of the thermal behavior of a room with a Solar Façade (SF) for ventilation under the tropical wet climate of the Mexican southeast zone is presented. Both a summer day and a winter day of Merida Yucat an were considered. The effects of the size of the vents, thickness of the wall, channel width, location of the inlet air and the material of the wall were analyzed to obtain the optimal configuration of the SF. The optimal configuration was considered to simulate the thermal behavior of the SF considering two-dimensional flow. Results indicate that SF removed enough energy from the room to reduce the average temperature of the indoor air up to 9.1 C compared to the ambient temperature. For the winter day, from 8 to 14 h, the SF increased the temperature of the indoor air on average 1 C. According to the standard ASHRAE 62.2, the SF complies the ventilation requirements during 8 h. In addition, the natural ventilation supplied by the SF allows to reduce an electricity consumption equivalent to a fan shaft power up to 0.693 kWh per day. Based on the results, SF is highly recommended to be used in the Mexican southeast zone.