There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) are parts of the major energy consumption in a building. Conventional heating and cooling systems are having an impact on carbon dioxide emissions, as well as on security of energy supply. In this regard, one of the attempts taken by researchers is the development of solar heating and cooling technologies. The objective of this paper is to review the passive solar technologies for space heating and cooling. The reviews were discussed according to the working mechanisms, i.e. buoyancy and evaporative effects. The advantages, limitations and challenges of the technologies have been highlighted and the future research needs in these areas have also been suggested.

Review of passive solar heating and cooling technologies

The increasing installed area of solar technologies around the world gives us an idea about the unlimited potential available in solar energy. This combined with the rising fossil fuel prices and frequent power outages, favor decentralized power generation among domestic consumers and small industries. However, the low energy of the solar PV module, the low exergy of the solar flat plate thermal collector and limited usable shadow-free space on building roof-tops could be overcome by the high overall (electrical and thermal) efficiency of a solar Photovoltaic Thermal (PV/T) system, which combines the electrical and thermal components in a single unit area. This paper gives a brief overview of the different solar flat plate PV/T technologies, their efficiencies, applications, advantages, limitations and research opportunities available.

Flat plate solar photovoltaic–thermal (PV/T) systems : A reference guide

Search for the optimal window-to-wall ratio in office buildings in different European climates and the implications on total energy saving potential

An overview of innovations introduced in the field of flat solar thermal collectors is presented using information from different literature sources. Despite the large number of publications available about this specific issue, this review is focused on the last ten years period, to underline the actual trend of the scientific and technologic world so far. Bearing in mind this choice, in this study a selection of the most valuable papers has been done, considering different points of view and aspects. Even if this work cannot be considered exhaustive of the complete literature about this field, it can be taken into account as a quick reference to have an overview about new materials, geometries, heat transfer fluids etc., available and tested in the last decade.

Innovation in flat solar thermal collectors: A review of the last ten years experimental results

Façade solar collectors

Stratification analysis of domestic hot water storage tanks: A comprehensive review

Influence of increased temperature on energy production of roof integrated PV panels

https://macsheep.spf.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/macsheep/dokumente/Matuska_SHC_2013.pdf

Tomas Matuska

Papers

Façade solar collectors

Stratification analysis of domestic hot water storage tanks: A comprehensive review

Influence of increased temperature on energy production of roof integrated PV panels

Performance and Economic Analysis of Hybrid PVT Collectors in Solar DHW System

Numerical prediction of the stratification performance in domestic hot water storage tanks