Development and characterization of semitransparent double skin PV facades with heat recovering

This research aims at developing new standardized typologiesof semitransparent double skin facades formed by an external semitransparent PV laminate, a wide air gap and a rear glass (Figure 1). There are actually many buildings in Europe which incorporate such activefacades, but all them have been designed as user defined projects and very few of them accurately evaluatethe feasibility of using the heat produced by the air channel. This research tries to address this situation: the Spanish company ISOFOTON, together with CIMNE and the BSC-CNS has started a collaboration to design and standardize these ventilated faades. This paper describesthe results of two stages of a more wide research: an intensive evaluation of the existing heat transfer relationsfor buoyancy induced flows; and the programming of a dynamic transient solver able to define the thermo-electrical performance of this faades.