Polycarbonate multi-wall panels integrated in multi-layer solar façade concepts

Recent technological advances in transparent insulation materials' (TIMs) production may have opened ways for new integration of these materials in buildings. This paper presents a study analysing several variants of façades incorporating TIMs on solar façade principles. The analysis is based on ongoing long-term full-scale experiments in Brno, Czech Republic. The paper introduces the test platform which is used for evaluation of specific aspects of integrated polycarbonate TIMs. The paper describes the experiment results, especially long-term thermal response and passive solar gain data. These data are applied for analysis of: influence of various polycarbonate-based TIMs on the real performance of the façades; influence of implementation of different solar absorbers on the performance of the proposed facades; effectivity of application of latent thermal energy storage (based on PCMs) as a part of heat accumulation layer and coupling of TIM with prismatic glass to enhance optical selectivity aspect. Presented results demonstrate for example significant influence of the type of solar absorber on the thermal performance of tested solar facades: the difference is up to 35% to 54%. Also the integration of prismatic glass coupled with simple two-wall polycarbonate panel can reduce solar penetration through components at the level comparable with the most complex six-wall panel.