Abstract :
External louvres are increasingly used to provide solar protection for building glazed surfaces. The integration of collectors
into the external louvres of buildings offers a means of reducing system cost as well as providing architects with
more freedom to integrate the technology into their designs. This work concerns the modification of existing louvre
designs to integrate a solar collector in the shading device. The evaluation of a thermal solar system for water heating
is assessed in this paper. A numerical model for the integrated solar collector was developed for different configurations
and the collector efficiency is quantified for each configuration. System thermal performance was obtained for the climatic
conditions of Lisbon (Portugal) and Tenerife (Spain). Economic and environmental viability of the system is assessed.
2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
