Simulation of a Single Zone Building in Meghalaya Using Solar Air Heater in TRNSYS Software

The global demand for renewable energy is increasing daily. A substantial portion of this renewable energy will be provided by solar energy. In this scenario, solar air heaters are a suitable replacement for electric heaters. Solar air heaters (SAHs) find wide application in space heating, crop drying, and process heating, among many others. The simulation of SAH for various locations can be carried out by the Transient System Simulation software, commonly known as TRNSYS. The current study focuses on the simulation of a SAH system for a building in the location of Cherrapunjee in the state of Meghalaya in India. A wet and cold location is explicitly chosen to determine the application of the solar air heater in cold climates for space heating applications. A single zone building located at the NIT Meghalaya main campus in Cherrapunjee is considered the building whose outlet temperature is determined. A significant increase in the output temperature is obtained using SAH. The temperature of 40.52 °C was obtained at 5821 h at a mass flow rate of 1000 kg/hr. The humidity ratio obtained was 0.028 at 5920 h.