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SolarWall is the brand name of a transpired collector manufactured by Conserval Engineering. It was invented by the company's president, John Hollick, in the late 1980s. The SolarWall system consists of perforated metal heating panels mounted onto the building's sun facing wall. SolarWall heaters were first used to heat and ventilate large buildings with a requirement for ventilation air or fresh air. Solar space heating and solar crop or process drying are other applications that are ideally suited for the heaters. The unglazed design has and continues to be used for heating or preheating large volumes of fresh air whereas the partially glazed 2-stage heater is becoming the preferred choice for achieving higher temperatures when heating buildings in colder climates.
History
Traditional solar thermal panels were designed to heat domestic hot water and were generally roof mounted. Space heating accounts for the largest energy usage for buildings in cold climates especially where snow accumulation is common. It was decided to have a solar collector that would not freeze, thus air became the heat transfer medium instead of water or antifreeze; a wall mount orientation was selected to eliminate any snow buildup associated with roof mounted panels and the vertical orientation was found to increase winter solar gain as it was more perpendicular to the low winter sun angle and the snow on the ground was found to reflect in as much as 50% more solar energy. An additional bonus with utilizing the wall and a building integrated design has been much lower costs.
Building integrated solar air heating has become a popular form of solar heating, with thousands of installations in over forty countries. According to Solar Energy Industries Association over 5,000,000 square feet (460,000 m2) of these panels were in operation as of 2015.[citation needed]
Hybrid Design
The SolarWall technology can be installed as a hybrid solar system that generates both heat and electricity from the same surface area. By combining photovoltaics with the air heating technology, the heat produced by the solar panels is removed and drawn into the transpired collector, thereby cooling the solar panels. The heat energy is then ducted into a building’s mechanical ventilation system or to an air water heat exchanger where it offsets the conventional heating loads.
See also
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