[Sust-mar] Solar energy and multi-storey residential buildings

[Larry Hughes]

Solar energy and multi-storey residential buildings 
Larry Hughes and Tylor Wood 
http://lh.ece.dal.ca/enen/2007/ERG200702.pdf

This report considers the limitations on solar energy in new, multi-storey
residential buildings in Halifax.  In a time of rising energy demand and
faltering production, the decisions made with respect to building design
will be felt for many decades to come.  Buildings can improve their energy
security by reducing their heating demand and replacing imported energy
supplies with indigenous ones. 

The findings in this report are preliminary; however, they show that: 

- Buildings of between four to seven stories have the potential of meeting
all of their space and water heating requirements from solar energy.

- Reducing heating demand can increase the number of stories heated with
solar energy.

- Seasonal storage will be necessary for any building expecting to use
solar energy if it is to be used as a predominant source of space heating.

- A building of 26 stories in height will gain no more than a fraction of
its heating supply from the sun.

- For solar heating to work in a 26 storey building, it would be necessary
to incorporate technologies, such as the solar wall, into its design.


Larry Hughes, PhD
Professor
Energy Research Group
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 2X4
Canada

v: 902.494.3950
f: 902.422.7535
e: larry.hughes at dal.ca
u: http://lh.ece.dal.ca