Arduino-based night return mechanism for passive solar trackers

New Prototype of Photovoltaic Solar Tracker Based on Arduino

The global increase in energy demand and exponential exhaustion of fossil recourses has favored the development of new systems of electricity production. Photovoltaic solar energy is undoubtedly one that has the highest application in housings, due to its simplicity and easy implementation. In this work, a new prototype of photovoltaic solar tracker with Arduino platform was developed. Feedback...

Return of the Night Riders

A knowledge based CAAD system for passive solar architecture

A computer-aided design tool for assisting the designer to set appropriate passive solar systems for heating and cooling is presented. The system is based on a knowledge base oriented design process (KBDP). The knowledge base stores design guidelines and procedural methods for determining the passive systems that best suit the local climatic conditions. This tool is aimed to be used already at ...

Improvement of thermal performance of a solar chimney based on a passive solar heating system with phase-change materials

Passive solar systems such as solar chimneys need solar radiation in order to work. Therefore, they cannot present stable natural ventilation when solar energy vanishes: to have a more robust and stable condition, solar energy should be stored during the day and released back during the night. Phase change materials can save additional thermal energy during the day and release it during the...

Model Selection for Predicting the Return Time from Night Setback

This paper reports a comparison of models for estimating the return time from a night setback condition. Fifty-seven models are compared using simulation data that include the influence of climate, building mass, controller tuning, room orientation, and the unoccupied control strategy on return time. Two-parameter models are recommended for estimating the return time for both heating and coolin...