PV & Peltier façade: preliminary experimental results

The paper reports the preliminary experimental results of an hybridization between a classic ventilated facade and photo-voltaic panels powering a Peltier cells system to improve the inner summer comfort with an environmental friendly approach. The outer layer of the facade is made of photovoltaic panels while a pair of light alloy heat exchanger, coupled on the opposite sides of the Peltier cells, are fitted between the internal space and the air chimney of the facade. The Peltier cells are electrically wired directly with the solar cells: the more the sun affects the front, the more the solar cells produce power to feed the Peltier cells that work as a static heat pump, cooled by the air flowing through the interspace of the ventilated facade. This will result in an inside cooling effect and this effect shall be summed with the well-known passive good performance of the ventilated facade in summer sunny days. During the winter, a simple switch of the power polarity would result in a free inner heating effect, partially using the solar energy incident on the front: the risk of icing on the cold exchanger in the chimney would be reduced because of the heat transmitted by the rear side of the photo-voltaic cells. A small scale prototype has been tested during summer, showing an improvement of the inner air temperature of about 3-4 K during the sunniest hours, in comparison with the unequipped case.