1

Proceedings of STME-2013
International conference on Smart Technologies for Mechanical Engineering
25-26 Oct 2013

BUILDING SPACE HEATING THROUGH MODIFIED TROMBE WALL: AN
EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

Shiv Lal
*

Centre for Energy Studies
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India
E-mail address: shivlal1@gmail.com

S.C. Kaushik
Centre for Energy Studies
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India
E-mail address: kaushik@ces.iitd.ac.in


P.K. Bhargava
Central Building Research Institute Roorkee,
CBRI, India
Email address: bhargavapk@rediffmail.com

Nagesh Babu Balam
Central Building Research Institute Roorkee
CBRI, India
Email address: bhargavapk@rediffmail.com



ABSTRACT
This investigation deals with the performance evaluation of
modified Trombe wall used for space conditioning. The
modified Trombe wall comprises of two parts: (i) black painted
mild steel plate of 3mm thickness, used as absorber, and (ii)
metallic box of mild steel sheet filled with normal air, which
was used as thermal storage. The experiment was conducted
during winter season of 2012 at Central Building Research
Institute Roorkee. Metallic box increases normal room
temperature by 5.0 8.5C during daytime and by 2.0 -5.0C
during night times. On the other hand, the metallic plate
increases the room temperature by 1-4C above ambient air
during night time. The ordinary Trombe wall increases the
room temperature by 0.4-2C during the day time and 2-3C
during night time temperature. The Experimental room
temperature is always higher than the reference room. There is
lot of scope for conservation of energy in space heating, and the
comfort room temperature can be achieved by metallic plate
type or metallic box type solar chimney.

Keyword: Trombe wall, space heating, modified Trombe wall


1. INTRODUCTION
The utilization of solar energy for space heating is not a new
concept though its use is increasing day by day due to
expensive conventional energy resources. During the Stone
Age, the solar energy was stored by thick stone wall during
daytime in many cold regions across the globe which was used
for heating purposes during night times. Trombe wall which is
extensively used for heating, cooling and ventilation of modern
building now days, it has been identified as an alternative for
the thick masonry wall which is little bit costly. Trombe wall
was developed by Trombe and Michel [1960] at the C.N.R.S.
laboratory in France for the first time and thereafter, it was used
for heating the buildings by passive mode. There are number of
researchers and scientists who have found Trombe wall very
useful and effective for both heating and ventilation of
buildings (Bansal 1993; Khedari 2000; Ong and Chow 2003,
Darori 2004 and Zhai et al. 2005).
Agrawal (1989) reviewed four different passive and active
systems which were used extensively in building for natural
heating and cooling. The concept of heat storage wall was
introduced for heating purposes in the building during winter
season initially, which later on also helped to reduce
dependence on conventional resources of energy. Kaushik and
Kaul (1989) developed a thermal model to study the thermal
comfort in building by introducing mixed concrete-water
thermal mass storage wall.
Parametric study of passive cooling system in building was
worked out by Gan (1998). His study revealed that the
ventilation rate also increases with increase in the inlet and
outlet opening dimensions with respect to the channel width. It
was proposed that the interior surface of room wall should be
insulated to enhance the ventilation rate in summer so that
Trombe wall can be used both for heating and cooling of
buildings. Sharma et al. (1989) conducted an experiment on a
Trombe wall and found potential application of such a wall in
solar passive building architecture in composite climatic
conditions.
Torcellini and Pless (2004) physically analyzed the Zeon
visitors Centre and site entrance building situated at NREL
wind site. The SEB Trombe wall has claimed as 10-41 cm thick
single or double glass, south facing and having 2 -5 cm air gap
of between glass cover and absorber surface. The selective
coating was used on surface to improve its performance. It was
observed after two years study that Trombe wall was
contributing 20% of the total heating provided to the building
with the average efficiency of the wall being 13%. Burek and
Habeb (2007) investigated the air flow and thermal efficiency
characteristics of both solar chimney and Trombe walls. Chel et
al. (2008) estimated the passive heating potential of Trombe
wall for honey storage building by using TRNSYS and
concluded that the energy conservation up to 3312kWh/year
can be achieved by making assumption of a short simple
payback period like seven months.
2
More recently, Jaber and Ajib (2011) optimized a Trombe wall
for Mediterranean region by using life cycle cost criterion and
results were simulated by TRNSYS and concluded that the
optimum Trombe wall area ratio from thermal and economical
point of view should be 37%. This optimum ratio has reduced
life cycle cost (LCC) by 2.4% and CO2 is reduced annually by
445 kg.
In the present investigation we have designed a Modified
Trombe wall/solar chimney for building space heating in winter
season at CBRI Roorkee with the concept of increasing the wall
temperature by application of metallic sheet. This will lead to
develop an approach for designing a Trombe wall in cold
region of India and in North hemisphere.


2. System Description
The built up modified Trombe wall/ solar chimney is designed
for a specific room having 16.253 m
3
volume situated at CBRI
Roorkee, India [Latitude 29 51 and Longitude 77 53 at 274
m mean sea level] as illustrated in Figure 1. The design was
based on 4.0 ACH at annual average solar insolation about
400W/m
2
. The area of inlet and exit vent was kept same as 0.09
m
2
. The vertical gap between inlet and exit vent from the center
point is about 2.85 m. There is a vast gap in available literature
on application of a metallic absorber for space heating through
the solar chimney.
This modified solar chimney / Trombe wall is capable to
accommodate the effect of metallic plate and metallic box type
absorber. Another important feature introduced in this system
is, as hinged glass cover frame from the center by which it can
be tilted to any angle. This feature gives an optimum tilt angle
to increase the performance and reduce the back flow in the
chimney which is essential in summer season, which generates
stacks effect and measurable flow. To control the space
heating and ventilation features of a building, two hinged
dampers are provided at the top of the frame.
The modified Trombe wall constructed in two parts, in the first
one, a metallic sheet (3 mm thickness) is fixed over a wooden
frame 0.9 m x 2.55m x 0.045m, and the second part is made of
metallic box having equal dimension to wooden frame as
shown in Figure 2. To assess the temperature profile of the
designed Trombe wall, thermo-couple was placed at different
positions (see Figure. 2). The plan of experimental room,
reference room and thermocouple position in same is shown in
Figure 3.
Both the plate and water wall are painted by nickel chrome
black paint for increasing the absorptivity up to 80%.

Figure 1: Modified Trombe wall for building space heating

Figure 2: Orthographic view and dimensions of modified
Trombe wall

Figure 3: Plan of Experimental and reference room

3. Instrumentation and Measurement
The experimental study was conducted during winter season of
year 2012. The global and diffuse solar radiations incident on a
horizontal surface were measured by Solar Pyranometer
(Modle: SP Lite2 type; Make: Eppley, Netherlands), and
(Modle: SP Lite2 type; Make: Kipp&Zonen, Netherlands)
respectively is shown in Figure 4 (a, b). Calibrated T-type
thermocouples connected to a multi-channel temperature data
logger (Digitec, India) was used to measure the air
temperatures and data logger for solar insolation and
temperature recording are shown in Figure 4(c, d). Total
experimental uncertainties of different parameters measured
during the experimental work on the modified Trombe wall/
solar chimney.
3

Figure 4: Measuring equipment (Pyranometer and data logger)


4. Result and Discussions:
4.1 Observation and measurement of Environmental
Parameter:
The environmental parameters such as global, diffuse solar
radiation, and ambient air temperature were monitored for
twenty five days in December 6-30, 2012. The typical day of
December is on 10
th
day of the month as suggested by (Duffy
and Beckman, 1980). The Figure 5 reveals the relation
between global, diffuse solar radiation, and ambient air
temperature of typical day of December month. It was found
that the maximum global radiation was about 576.25 W/m
2
at
12:00 hours, whereas the maximum diffuse solar radiation was
about 109.34 W/m
2
at 11:00 hours. As far as the ambient air
temperature is concern, it was maximum as 20.1C at 13:00
hours and minimum as 3.2C at 7:00 hours.


Figure 5: Solar radiation for the average day of December,
2012


4.2 Comparative study of simple and modified Trombe
wall
The temperature profile of simple and modified Trombe wall is
depicted in Figure 5. The figure reveals that the ambient air
temperature found lower from 6:00 PM to 9:00AM and it is
found higher than the reference room temperature for other
periods. The lowest ambient air temperature was observed as
3.2C (Below 4C freezing started) at 7:30 AM on 10
th

December and on other days also, ambient air temperature was
recorded lowest in morning hours. The space heating effect
through Trombe wall is shown in Figure 6 and 7.


Figure 6: Full day Variation of Different temperatures for
average day of Dec 2012

Figure 7: Comparison of experimental room, reference room
and ambient air temperature

The experimental room temperature was observed higher than
the ambient air and reference room temperature that is because
of low losses and more heat stored during day time. The
reference room temperature (without wall heating) was found
lower than the ambient air temperature during day time, but the
experimental room temperature was found approximately 2-9C
4
higher for various set up times. The difference between room
and ambient temperatures in least morning hours was recorded
higher as compared to other median times. Experimental room
temperatures were recorded 1.5-8C higher with reference room
in peak winter season.

The temperature of black masonry wall (simple Trombe wall)
was recorded lower than the both metal plate and metallic box.
And as a result of that the room temperature increases in order
of wall, metal plate and metallic box which is clearly shown in
Figure 8. It was observed that, the higher the absorber
temperature, more the convective effect. On the other hand the
output air temperature through Trombe wall was found higher
for metallic box as compared to others.

Figure 8: Comparison of Simple black masonry wall, MS plate,
and MS box data in Trombe wall

4.3 Temperature variation according to height of absorber
The temperature is not constant throughout the entire height of
absorber plate which is clearly shown in Figure 9. It reveals
that, the lower temperature found at the lowest end of absorber
because absorber plate end is in contact with room temperature.
On other hand the temperature at height of 2.55m reduces
slightly from the maximum temperature (at 1.8m) because this
end also is in contact with room air and hot air bends (eddy
formation at the corner of 90 degree bend). It expressed that the
air flow temperature increases with increase in chimney height.

Figure 9: Temperature variation according to height of absorber
plate at 12:00 hour on typical day


4.4 Error and uncertainty analysis
There is chance of error or uncertainties during the experiments
and this may be due to, instrumentation (data logger, memory,
electronic circuit, transmitters, wire resistance etc.), type of
junction and sensor, climate condition, calibration method,
method of observation and testing methods for evaluation. The
total experimental uncertainties of different parameters
measured during the experiment on modified Trombe wall were
presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Uncertainties of the experimental parameters
Parameters Units Uncertainty
Uncertainty in the temperature
measurement (T-type
thermocouples used)
C

Uncertainty in the solar energy
measurement
W/m
2




5. Conclusions:
The effect of metallic plate and metallic box on space heating
of building in peak winter season was evaluated. It was found
that the technology introduced in modified Trombe wall having
better performance as compared to conventional Trombe wall.
The experimental results were compared with reference room
where no external space heating is provided. After inducing
metallic box in Trombe wall the temperature during night time
was higher by 5-10C corresponding to ambient air
temperature. On the other hand, during the day time the room
temperature was 2-5C higher than ambient air temperature.
The conventional Trombe wall gives higher temperature by 0.4-
2C during day time whereas; it was 2-3C during night time
corresponding to ambient air. The metallic plate heating effect
gives the 1-4C temperature above ambient air temperature
during night time and 2-3C during day time. The experimental
room temperature recorded 1.5-8C higher with reference room
in peak winter season. These technologies found suitable for
producing the comfort room temperature.

On the other hand metallic plate temperature increases with
increase in solar radiation and accumulated heat was enough to
produce chimney effect, the air temperature inside the chimney
was increased from lower side to upper side. The plate
temperature found higher at the upper stage as compared to
lower and middle stage, it clearly indicates convective heat
transfer at upper level is less than the lower side.

The temperature of air near to metallic plate is higher and it
decreases towards glazing side but near to glazing air
temperature is slightly higher. The air extracts convective heat
from both plate and glazing.
5
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author (Shiv Lal) gratefully acknowledges University
College of Engineering, Rajasthan Technical University, Kota,
Rajasthan (India) and IIT Delhi (India), for sponsorship under
quality improvement program of government of India.

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