Advanced Heat Harvesting window for High Performance buildings integrating a transparent double skin facade technology with a PCM-AIR heat exchanger

To achieve climate neutrality by 2050, the EU Council developed the European Green Deal (EGD) which on October 25,2022 was betrayed in a Community directive. The revision of the directive sets up new, more ambitious energy efficiency standards for new and renovated buildings in the EU. The majority of energy losses in buildings are caused by the glazing components on the envelope. Among the many functions of glazing systems, they allow light to enter the interior, can contribute to a building's solar gain, and have traditionally been used to provide natural ventilation for the maintenance of a healthy indoor environment. However, opening several times daily may be still insufficient to provide free air and leads to additional energy losses during this process. To overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks, double skin facades (DSFs) are one of the most effective methods of managing outdoor-indoor heat exchange and ventilation along with providing architectural and energy flexibility. This technology not only minimizes the loss of fresh air while continuously supplying it, but can also supports the thermal management of the building through the integration of latent thermal energy storage (LTES), in particular Phase Change Material (PCM) are a promising technology in doing so. In light of that, combining a DSF with a PCM heat exchanger could be an effective way to improve a building efficiency. This thesis moves along the experimental study conducted within the framework of the industrial project "iClimaBuilt" which is supported by Horizon 2020. The aim is to design and evaluate the performance of an innovative heat harvesting window integrating transparent double skin facade technology with a PCM heat exchanger. To do that optimal design and performance analysis are carried out separately for the double skin and the PCM heat exchanger. Then, the integration of the two is analysed. Analyses for the DSF are carried out using first an analytical model in python, then through the building energy simulation program Energy Plus and the final DSF model was developed using an analytical model based on the ISO 15099, which had previously been validated through experimental measurements. Modelling the PCM heat exchanger is done using an analytical mathematical model, then implemented as a lumped parameter model in Python, calibrated through computational fluid dynamic simulations. Interaction between EnergyPlus and the Python models is modelled through a Python plug-in which allows EnergyPlus to call Python scripts at each timestep during simulation runtime as part of the simulation itself. Performances are evaluated comparing the case with only a thermal glazing unit, the case with only a DSF, and the case with both the DSF and the PCM heat exchanger.