Thermal Simulation Study of a Building Improved by a Solar Wall

Harnessing solar energy to improve buildings’ thermal comfort and energy performance is a sustainable bioclimatic strategy that has received more attention in the last two decades. This work presents a dynamic thermal simulation study to compare the thermal performance of a single room to another room reinforced with a Trombe wall. A coupled model (TRNSYS/CONTAM) was used. In order to evaluate the solar potential in Algeria, the thermal behavior of the Trombe wall was tested under different climate zones; six sites were selected. The simulation results showed that using the Trombe wall increases the room temperature by at least 4 °C, which reduces the energy demand for heating up to 481 kWh per year in the coldest region of Algeria.