Adaptive facade collectors for solar architecture
Goal of the German research and development project ArKol (2016-2020) was to develop two innovative facade collectors which give architects more degrees of freedom to design solar architecture: On the one hand side the strip collector provides a high solar thermal performance while the material and the distance between the strips can be chosen within a broad range. On the other hand, Solar Thermal Venetian Blinds were developed. They are well suited within double skin facades, they can retract and tilt as conventional venetian blinds, but provide renewable heat and can reduce the solar heat gain coefficient (g value). Both technologies use heat pipes to collect the heat efficiently.
The follow-up project "DESTINI" continues the development of Solar Thermal Venetian Blinds, aiming at an installation in a real building within the building project SpringPark VALLEY. Here the performance can be evaluated with a detailed performance monitoring. The project started in May 2020 with partner from research and the construction industry.
Project coordinator: Simon Häringer, M.Sc.
Left: Demonstrator of the Solar Thermal Venetian Blind integrated into a double-skin façade element.
