Air leakage in residential solar heating systems

A series of computer simulations was performed to evaluate the effects of component air leakage on system thermal performance for a typical residential solar heating system, located in Madison, Wisconsin. Auxiliary energy required to supplement solar energy for space heating was determined using the TRNSYS computer program, for a range of air leakage rates at the solar collector and pebble bed storage unit. The effects of heat transfer and mass transfer between the solar equipment room and the heated building were investigated. The effect of reduced air infiltration into the building due to pressurized by the solar air heating system were determined. A simple method of estimating the effect of collector array air leakage on system thermal performance was evaluated, using the f CHART method.