Concept of Innovative Solar Energy Development for Buildings in Tropical Climate

Abstract

This article aims to present the concept of innovative development for the use of natural light for buildings in tropical climate based on the concept that combines the use and protection of sunlight by comparing of usage features and disadvantages or limitations of solar energy products, which lead to analysis and presentation of concept for the development of innovative solar energy application that combine the use and protection into the same system. At the end of the article presents a development of the skylight and shading device set with natural ventilation, which takes into account for tropical climate and corresponds to the theory of the sun orbit of Thailand. It is used as an example to analyze the design approach to solve the disadvantages or limitations of solar energy products referring the previous results of the shading test using a computer program. Then testing and measuring indoor and outdoor illuminance and air temperature using a test box with skylight and shading device installed in a natural environment to compare with the one without shading device. The preliminary test results showed that a skylight and shading device set could prevent the direct sunlight 100% throughout the year. The average illuminance in daytime met the illumination standard for living space. During the period of 8:00-16:30 hours of January, the value of the illuminance was 100-300 lux, which is significant different from that of from the skylight without shading device, which was about 3,000 lux or ten times higher than the illumination standard. The ventilation system enhances the efficiency in reducing the air temperature. At maximum air temperature, comparing to skylight without shading device, it could reduce indoor air temperature by 3.1°C. The development of skylight and shading device set with natural ventilation is a guideline for the sustainable development products for energy conservation and the environment that has the potential to be developed for industrial process in the future.            ผลิตภัณฑ์พลังงานแสงอาทิตย์