MODEL RESEARCH SOLAR CHIMNEY

One living room design of the Dementia-friendly architecture design has been chosen for ventilation and light research. The research has been done by a creating 1:10 scale model of the living room with solar chimney and doing simulations for ventilation and light. With 2 types of the solar chimney, the temperature in the chimney and the room and the air velocity were measured as well as the daylight factor and luminance ratios in the room below.

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In general, type 1 solar chimney has higher measured air velocities and allows for more illuminance in the room below, and thus preforms the best. 

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The dimensions of the ventilation opening has a big impact on the ventilation rate. A opening too big will result in a lower air velocity, while a opening too small will also increase the temperature in the room below the solar chimney as the warm air cannot escape well enough through the solar chimney. 

A darker background result in higher temperatures and thus will improve the chinmneys air velocity. However for illuminance a full glass solar chimney is the best, the light will enter deeper in the room.

The addition of wind on the opposite side of the sun enhanced the measured air velocity by approx. 60%.  If the wind is perpendicular the air velocity improved by approx. 30%. However, wind from the same direction as the sun will decrease the air velocity by approx. 25%.

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