A building integrated solar collector designed to preheat fresh air during the heating season.

A building integrated solar collector was designed to preheat the fresh air used to ventilate a commercial building in Norway. The solar collector is a 50 meters long air chamber that runs along the ridge of the sloped roof. There is a fresh air intake at each end of the collector. An air intake to the ventilation system at the center of the collector causes fresh air to flow through the collector. The energy consumed for lighting, heating, ventilation, hot water, and plug loads has been monitored since Spring 1993. A more advanced monitoring system including an eight channel data logger has collected data since June 1994. The paper describes the design of the solar collector and explains the naturally enforced mechanical ventilation system. The performance of the solar collector is evaluated based on the analysis of the data collected during the two stages of monitoring. The findings show that the solar collector contributes energy savings above 1000 kWh per week, which indicates that the actual annual savings could exceed the estimated 40,000 kWh. The solar collector would contribute additional energy savings if the surplus summer heat was used to produce hot water and to heat the floors of the locker rooms.