SOLAR THERMAL MODELING OF NON-AIR-CONDITIONED MULTI-ZONE BUILDING: EVALUATION OF HEAT FLUXES AND ROOM AIR TEMPERATURES

This article presents a transient periodic heat transfer analysis of non air-conditioned multi-zone buildings, taking into account the effects of heat fluxes through various facades of buildings including windows, air ventilation and infiltration, furnishings, and ground heat conduction. A user-friendly computer software has been developed for the above-mentioned purpose. The validity of the analysis and the building simulation software has been checked by comparing the results with those obtained by running commercial software SUNCODE for the same input data. The comparison shows a good agreement between the two. Further, a comparison is made between the single zone modeling and multizone modeling. The multizone modeling is seen to be more accurate. The analytical model presented here of expressing forcing functions and the solution as periodic functions, which can be expressed as Fourier series, differs from the more widely used finite difference method in conventional building simulation packages. The building simulation package developed would be an aid to building architects for better thermal design of non-air-conditioned buildings.