Solar Cooling Integrated Façades

Abstract

The application of façade products integrating solar cooling technologies tends to be one of the promising options to be considered for challenges related to the increase in global demand for cooling in the built environment. Accordingly, the technological innovation of such products represent an essential task to be taken into account for meeting the future cooling demand in buildings. However, selecting the right technology and tackling technical and product-related aspects in the context of solar cooling can be challenging, since each technology is different from one another in terms of their working principles. Furthermore, developing such building products can be a complex endeavour, due to the involvement of various components. This paper aims to propose a conceptual approach for designing and developing façade products integrating solar cooling technologies. Proposing this approach required establishing a matrix of key attributes and criteria affecting technological selection through referring to identified key perceived enabling factors by expert interviews in an earlier stage of the study. The outcomes of this study outlined various attributes, such as product performance and efficiency as well as compactness and space usability, that can be used in product development of solar thermally and electrically driven systems, in order to ensure to support the widespread application.