Energy & Buildings 239 (2021) 110854

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Energy & Buildings

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Passive air cooling system and solar water heater with Phase Change
Material for low energy buildings in hot arid climate
Amr Sayed Hassan Abdallah
Departement of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Assiut University, Assiut 71516, Egypt

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Solar energy is considered alternative crucial to fulfilling the increasing of energy requirements. Passive
Received 23 September 2020 cooling systems are considered alternatives to mechanical ventilation systems. In this work, a highlight
Revised 21 January 2021 for a solar chimney with water heater and Phase Change Material is applied as a passive solar technique
Accepted 22 February 2021
for cooling building integrated with short wind tower for low energy building in the hot arid climate. This
Available online 2 March 2021
paper aims to investigate the performance of new passive air condition system with the solar chimney
and solar water heater as a full system for cooling air and heating water to be applied during day and
Keywords:
night time based on the improvement of the solar chimney in Assiut climate, Egypt. Measurements,
Phase Change Material
Solar Chimney
for air temperatures and surface temperature of the aluminium and air velocity inside the chimney, water
Passive air cooling system temperature and room temperature were conducted with different solar radiations to evaluate the panel
Multi-Wall Carbon NanoTubes performance and room thermal comfort. The findings show a minimum airflow rate in the chimney after
Water heater sunset equal to 0.69 kg/s to provide fresh cold air during a hot day with a water temperature equal 58 °C
and 40 °C during 2 pm and after sunset respectively. Also, integration of solar chimney and PCM with
cooling wind tower achieves a significant reduction for room air temperature between 8 and 4 k during
day and night time respectively and the condition within the comfort range of Predicted Mean Vote
(PMV) especially night time. The results provided information to integrate this new low energy compact
passive air cooling and water heating system for the housing projects of the upper floor in a hot arid cli-
mate in Egypt.
Ó 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V.

1. Introduction by Niloufar et al. [20] in the University of Tehran’s campus. Tem-

Solar chimneys are renewable energy systems that provide nat-
ural ventilation in buildings. Ventilation can be achieved inside
buildings due to strong solar radiation while having large limita-
tions in the system after sunset and at nighttime. The use of Phase
Change Materials (PCM) increase thermal storage during night-
time. Also, one of solar energy application for building sectors is
hot water production during all the year. In addition to solar chim-
ney and passive cooling, the determination of hot water based on
solar radiation is needed.
1.1. Solar chimney with PCM
Thermal storage systems have high flexibility and low cost for
use in building [25]. The integration of phase change material with
a solar chimney is increasing worldwide. Experimental studies of
the effect of latent heat storage (LHS) on a solar chimney with
and without phase change material (PCM) have been presented
E-mail addresses: arch_amrsayed@yahoo.com, Dr.amrsayed@aun.edu.eg
perature and velocity parameters were measured for solar chimney
performance. The results concluded that absorber surface temper-
atures were 72 °C and 69 °C for solar chimneys with and without
PCM, respectively, and the maximum air velocities inside the chim-
ney were 1.9 m/s and 2.0 m/s for both. Also, the effect of PCM’s
position in the hybrid wall on the solar chimney was experimen-
tally studied by Liu et al. [17] experimental. It was found that by
setting PCM attached with the absorber, the temperature and air
velocity in the chimney gap were higher than that of the air with
a PCM behind the absorber. José et al. [14] have investigated the
impact of integrating a Phase Change Material (PCM) on the perfor-
mance of two different laboratory solar chimney prototypes exper-
imentally, to make it usable for the whole year. The resulted
indicated the PCM integrated with solar chimney could maintain
a surface temperature higher than 40 °C in absence of a heat
source, so it represented a 33% higher temperature over its coun-
terpart during the same period.
On the other hand, some studies have acknowledged the prop-
erties of phase change material (PCM) on solar chimney perfor-
mance. J. Xam et al. [15] conducted a numerical simulation and

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2021.110854
0378-7788/Ó 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V.
A. Sayed Hassan Abdallah
analyzed heat transfer for solar chimneys (SC) with three types of
absorbing materials. Numerical simulations were conducted for
three orientations: east, south and west to analyze the overall ther-
mal performance of the SC. The results showed the SC with copper
plates had the higher mass flow rates of 0.016, 0.019 and 0.016 kg/s
for orientations east, west, and south, respectively. Also, the aver-
age thermal efficiencies were 34%, 27% and 34%, respectively. Also,
the SC with PCM had the mass flow rates of 0.014, 0.017 and
0.0153 kg/s for orientations east, west, and south, respectively. In
addition, the average thermal efficiencies were 28%, 19.8% and
27%, respectively. Yongcai and Shuli [28] experimented Paraffin
RT 42 as integrated PCM with solar chimney under three different
higher heat fluxes; 500 W/m2, 600 W/m2 and 700 W/m2. It was
found that the airflow rates for the 3 heat fluxes were slightly dif-
ferent; being 0.038 kg/s, 0.039 kg/m and 0.04 kg/s for the cases
500 W/m2, 600 W/m2 and 700 W/m2, respectively. Moreover, the
air outlet temperature for the case of 700 W/m2 was the lowest.
The best thermal efficiency with a maximum value of 80% was pre-
sented with the case of 500 W/m2. Yongcai and Shuli [29] experi-
mented solar chimney by incorporating organic PCM RT 42 under
different higher heat fluxes from 100 W/m2 to 800 W/m2. Also, a
numerical model has been employed to compare with the experi-
mental results. The numerical results showed a reduction in mass
rate and air temperature with the heat flux is further decreased.
The performance of the system deteriorates sharply once the heat
flux was equal to or lower than 500 W/m2 when Multi-Walled Car-
bon NanoTubes (MWCNTs), combined with traditional materials
[21] and [27]. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are elon-
gated hollow cylindrical nano-objects made of sp2 carbon.
MWCNTs can be used as an application to increase PCM’s thermal
conductivity and heat storage without affecting their thermal
properties, chemical compatibility and thermal stability [7].
1.2. Solar chimney with solar heater
Solar water heaters are one of the solar thermal application of
using renewable energy, that can collect sunlight in the outdoor
rooftop to heat water using a pump to circulate water. Recently
solar water heater has been integrated with other solar other tech-
niques such as a solar chimney, Phase Change Material (PCM) and
others. For example, Chantawong and Khedari [9] have studied the
integration between Glazed Solar Chimney (GSC) and Hot Water
Collector (HWC) assisted with DC fan (GSC-HWC) at the tropical
climate in Bangkok, Thailand. The GSC-HWC has been in a small
house of 4.05 m3 at the south façade. The dimensions of GSC-
HWC were 0.6 m height; 0.50 m width and 0.08 m air gap sepa-
rated the two layers beside two openings located at the bottom.
Then, experimental comparison between GSC-HWC and other
glazed solar chimney has been conducted, thus GSC-HWC could
increase the ventilation to a significantly high level that reduced
heat gain considerably. Fazilati and Alemrajabi [11] found that
integration of PCM with water heater increased water supply
25% longer compared without PCM. Furthermore [10] has experi-
mented GSC-HWC in the same city Bangkok, Thailand. The GSC-
HWC consisted of 0.50 m width, 0.6 m height and double pane lay-
ers, where the external layer used non-reflective painted pipes
with 0.01 m diameter and the internal layer used clear glass pane
with 0.006 m thickness. So the GSC-HWC has been compared with
other solar chimneys with a single clear glass window, hence the
result regards to the indoor temperature was lower for GSC-HWC
than another solar chimney. On the other hand, various studies
have addressed the integration between the solar water heater
and Phase Case material (PCM) to improve the thermal perfor-
mance [6,23]. Al-Kayiem and Lin [5] has been analysed the results
of the integration of solar water collector integrated with built-in
thermal energy storage that has been made of paraffin wax as a
2
Energy & Buildings 239 (2021) 110854
PCM and a nanocomposite of paraffin wax and Cu PCM. Firstly,
the experiment has been conducted with three cases were; with-
out PCM, with PCM and with Cu- PCM at three inclination angles
10°, 20° and 30° for each case. Then the system has been evaluated
for water heating at 7:00 PM and 7:00 AM. As results, the water
tank temperatures were 35.1 °C, 40.1 °C and 40.7 °C when the sys-
tem operated without PCM, with PCM and with Cu PCM respec-
tively. In addition, the best performances were at 10° inclination
angles, and they were 47.6%, 51.1% and 52.0% for the three cases
respectively. Ahmed et al. [4] have been addressed using Paraffin
wax as PCM as a thermal storage inside solar heater for water. So
that four cases have been tested; using PCM with and without solar
tracker and using water as storage material with and without a
solar tracker. By using PCM it was found that: the system working
time increased to 3 h, the system heating efficiency increased by
41.63%, efficiency increased by 50.47% and the system productivity
increased by 180%.
Integration of cooling wind tower and the solar chimney was
used to provide natural ventilation with indoor thermal comfort
and low energy. Many previous researches have been conducted
to examine the performance of integration of solar chimney and
wind tower with/ without cooling technique [8,12,13]] Integration
of solar chimney with cooling techniques in Egyptian residential
building was studied for the Trombe wall as solar cooling and heat-
ing [19] and experimental investigation with cooling wind tower
during day time only [2,1]. Development of a new passive air con-
dition system was done to achieve indoor cooling, fresh air and
indoor air quality of a housing unit. The new system design applies
to the hot arid climate of Assiut during daytime and until sunset
only. This is because the performance of the solar chimney is very
weak after sunset [2]. No experimental studies were found for inte-
gration passive cooling system, solar chimney and solar water hea-
ter for low energy building in a hot arid climate, Egypt. Therefore,
the main objective of this study is to integrate the three techniques
based on improving the solar chimney by using thermal storage to
increase the system performance during night time and using the
stored energy for heating water inorder to achieve compact and
new system for low energy housing. Investigation for the solar
chimney integrated with Phase Change Material (PCM) was done
as a single and separate system to develop and increase its perfor-
mance and stored heat for heating water before integration with
the full-scale system and real building. The study deals with the
improvement of the thermal performance of passive air condition
with a solar chimney integrated with a solar water heater to be
applied during day time and night time in a hot dry climate. The
new air condition and solar water heater are made from local
material in the Egyptian market. The purpose of improvement of
the solar chimney with PCM and Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
(MWCNTs) is to increase the heat storage for cooling air and
achieve hot water during the whole day.
2. Materials and experimental procedures
2.1. Experimental set-up for solar chimney and wind tower
The experiment is part of a research project (second phase) to
increase the performance of solar chimney integrated with a short
wind tower as passive cooling for night ventilation and cooling and
use the stored energy for heating water. The experiment in this
study is done in two stages. The first stage is the investigation
and improvement of a solar chimney with Phase Change Material
and MWCNTs as a separate system and integrated with the solar
water heated. The second stage is done to integrate the improve-
ment of a solar chimney and heating water system with the full-
A. Sayed Hassan Abdallah
scale test house and a passive cooling tower built in Assiut Univer-
sity (El-Gorib site).
A solar chimney was developed by integrating of PCM as ther-
mal storage with aluminium plate facing the south orientation
and painting the aluminium plate (2 mm) with black painting
mixed mechanically and vibrated with MWCNTs to enhance the
thermal conductivity of PCM, and the mechanism of the mixture
is based on previous research [18,7,25]. The chimney was manu-
factured as a vacuum box with 30 mm thickness made from Alu-
minium to be filled with Phase Change Material. Table 1 shows
the properties of Phase Change Material (paraffin) used in the
system.
The thickness of solar chimney is 300 mm (outside thickness)
based on the past literature [2,1] to increase air velocity and tem-
perature in the chimney gap Liu et al. [6]. Other dimensions of the
solar chimney gap, glass, width and height are with the same fea-
tures and characteristic as the past literature [2,1]. Fig. 1 shows the
schematic diagram of a solar chimney with PCM, water tube and
tank with the full-scale model. The water tube with diameter
125 mm is inserted inside the aluminium box. The water tube is
connected with a stainless water tank with a small pump to circu-
late the water. The aluminium box with water tube is filled with
PCM as thermal storage. The water tank is filled with 60 l of water
Table 1
The properties of Phase Change Material.
Thermal conductivity(W/m.K)
Phase Change Material (paraffin) Melting point (°C)
Density (kg/m3)
Latent heat (J/g)
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of a solar chimney with PCM and water tube and tank with the full-scale model.
Energy & Buildings 239 (2021) 110854
that is cable to supply water for a small family with four persons in
a family [22,26].
The second stage is done to investigate the improvement of
solar chimney model to achieve night cooling with wind tower
and passive cooling. The experimental test house exists in El Gorib
site (Assiut University, Agriculture site, Assiut University, Egypt).
The experimental test house has an area 30 m2. The detailed model
and the full description for the test house including the thermal
properties based on the published first phase [1]. Fig. 2 shows
the test house section with the integration of solar chimney with
PCM and wind tower on the top.
2.2. Materials and Preparation for improvement of solar chimney
Examination of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs)
was done in the Housing and Building National Research Center
(HBRC), Egypt to increase absorption of solar radiation for the solar
chimney integrated with PCM and increase chimney performance
during nighttime. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are
ultra-high thermal conductive materials. Preparation of MWCNTs
used in the experimental monitoring that was done in the EPRI-
Nanotechnology Center of the Egyptian Petroleum Research Insti-
tute (EGPRI) with certain specifications shown in Table 2. Fig. 3
shows the Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) of MWCNTs
in the EGPRI.
Significant progress was made in synthesizing carbon nanoma-
terials, especially carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which are one of the
0.2 most famous carbon nanomaterials allotropes. CNTs have high
54–56 solar radiation absorptions and heat dissipation that was discov-
800 ered by [Iijima in 1991]. Also, carbon-based materials was studied,
160.8 because they have high thermal conductivity and different com-
plex heat transfer mechanisms [Mo et al. 2016].
3
A. Sayed Hassan Abdallah Energy & Buildings 239 (2021) 110854

Fig. 2. The description for the cooling wind tower and solar chimney integrated into the test house.

Table 2
Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes specifications.

Diameter range 10–40 nm

Length Up to 5 um
Preparation method Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)

2.3. Carbon nanotubes synthesizing integrated with a solar chimney

The synthesizing process of MWCNTs involves passing a hydro-

carbon vapour through a tubular reactor in which a catalyst mate-
rial is present at a sufficiently high temperature to decompose the
hydrocarbon. MWCNTs grow in the presence of a catalyst in the
reactor, which is collected upon cooling the system to room tem-
perature. Thermal analysis of MWCNT was done as shown in
Fig. 4 based on the experiment done in HBRC. Thermal analysis
was performed in air at a scanning rate of 20 °C/min under air
atmosphere. It is shown that only one peak ranging from 530 °C
to 700 °C, with a peak maximum at 650 °C, can be attributed to
Fig. 4. Thermal analysis of MWCNT.
the oxidation of MWCNTs. The thermal analysis step located at
530–700 °C corresponding to a loss of 68 wt% may be attributed 3. Methodology
to the degradation of MWCNTs themselves. Based on the charac-
terizations performed on the prepared samples, we can conclude To conduct this study, the development of solar chimney with
that MWCNTs are well prepared with high quality and ready to PCM and the solar water heater was monitored as a first phase.
be used to the enhanced thermal conductivity of PCM and increase The measurement is carried out after painting the aluminium plate
the absorptivity of solar radiation. with black painting mixed with MWCNTs without the integration

Fig. 3. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) of MWCNTs (EGPRI).

4
A. Sayed Hassan Abdallah Energy & Buildings 239 (2021) 110854

of PCM, and then integration of PCM. Monitoring for outdoor air were selected to investigate the effect of different patterns of out-
temperature and air cavity temperature, the surface temperature door condition (hot periods) on a solar chimney and passive air
of aluminium plate, air velocity was done during the beginning condition performance.
of the hot period (April and May) of the year 2020 for the solar
chimney as a separate system. Then integration of solar chimney
4.1. Solar chimney evaluation and improvement
will be done to the full-scale test house with passive cooling wind
tower after improvement of the solar chimney during the hot per-
To analyze solar chimney performance, the performance of the
iod in June and July. The data are recorded each hour from 8 am
chimney was studied at the beginning of the hot period with/ with-
until 12 and 2 am and is repeated for different days with a different
out PCM. Hot period was chosen with high solar radiation to create
outdoor temperature range and different solar radiation. Monitor-
temperature gradient inside the solar chimney.
ing for indoor air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed,
Fig. 6 shows the air temperature, the surface temperature of the
globe temperature, cloth factor and metabolic rate inside the room
aluminium plate and chimney air cavity with\without integration
was conducted. The outdoor air temperature was measured using
of Phase Change Material with relation to the solar radiation pro-
data loggers-Thermo Recorder model TR72Ui with measuring
file. It is observed that the surface temperature of the aluminium
accuracy: ±1%RH, ±0.1 °C. Wind speed was measured by the
plate increased with PCM greater than without PCM with values
anemometer model Climomaster-6501 with accuracy ± 0.8 °C
equal to 77.8 °C and 68 °C, respectively, which agrees with the pre-
and ± (5% + 0.1 m/s) and AM-4214SD for continuous monitoring.
vious research [17]. The integration of Phase Change Material
The aluminium surface temperature was monitoring using a Flir
(PCM) with the aluminium plate causes the temperature to
camera (C2) and FLIR tool software was used for thermal image
increase and decrease gradually, especially after the middle of
production. Tripod was used to install measurement sensors inside
the day until sunset. This affects strongly the cavity air tempera-
the room at a height 1.1 m according to ISO 7726 Standard. Calcu-
ture and the airspeed inside the chimney. Also, the pattern of alu-
lations for thermal comfort index and Predicted Mean Vote (PMV)
minium surface temperature is equivalent to the solar radiation
and Predicted percentage dissatisfied (PPD) was done based on
profile.
Fanger’s equation according to ASHRAE online tools (Version
Fig. 7 shows the variation of chimney air temperature and its
2.0.3) [24]. PMV is calculated based on the combinations of the
effect on airspeed inside the chimney with the integration of
six parameters for which the PMV is within the recommended lim-
PCM. Maximum solar radiation of 1089 W/m2 during the middle
its ( 0.5 < PMV<+0.5). Occupant’s behaviour was measured inside
of the day (12 pm) causes a rise in the chimney air temperature
the test house for people monitoring the experiment and staying
and airspeed with a maximum value of 62 °C and 7 m/s respec-
inside the room to investigate the system performance during
tively when the outdoor temperature is 44 °C. The decrease of alu-
day time and especially night time.
minium surface temperature gradually after sunset causes also a
gradual decrease in airspeed without a sudden drop and a signifi-
4. Results and discussion cant high airspeed greater than 1.5 m/s during night time that is
too high than the published past research without the integration
Fig. 5 shows the pattern of outdoor temperature and humidity of PCM [2]. This causes the existence of continuous airflow after
during the hot days of the measurement periods (May-June July the sunset inside the chimney.
2020). The maximum outdoor temperature is 45 °C with maximum Some of the captured solar radiation during the day time con-
solar radiation of 1135 W/m2 at 12 pm during June. These periods verted to thermal energy and heat that is transferred to the water

Fig. 5. Temperature and humidity pattern during the hot period during the experiment (author).

Fig. 6. The temperature variation of aluminium plate and air cavity with \ without PCM.

5
A. Sayed Hassan Abdallah Energy & Buildings 239 (2021) 110854

and cause melting the PCM from solid to liquid. The aluminium
box (solar chimney absorber) is integrated with insulation to
reduce the heat loss to the environment through convection and
radiation. It is concluded that integration of PCM with aluminium
plate improve the performance of the chimney during the daytime
and after the sunset that cause a rise in the temperature of the
water to 58 °C during the 2 pm and decrease to 40 °C after the sun-
set and then decrease gradually with the decrease of aluminium
surface temperature. The transfer of energy and heat from the
black absorber requires time to transfer to water especially when
using the water continuously from the water tank and then replac-
ing by new water and the result of the hot water equivalent with
past literature [5]. Due to the characteristic of the clear sky all
the year in Assiut and hot arid climate, achieving of hot water from
solar chimney based on solar radiation and thermal storage will be
obtained all the year.
Fig. 8 shows the evaluation of aluminium surface temperature
of the chimney using thermal images from 8 am until 12 am in
the next day. The surface temperature increased gradually from
the sunrise until the middle of the day (12am) and then decrease
gradually until sunset with a maximum temperature of 68 °C
and 40.6 °C respectively during moderate outdoor temperature
(35 °C), and the maximum surface temperature of aluminium
reached 77.6 °C with outdoor temperature (43 °C). As the calcula-

Fig. 7. The temperature profile of the chimney air cavity during different ranges of outdoor temperature and airspeed.

Fig. 8. The variation of the aluminium surface temperature without the integration of PCM.

6
A. Sayed Hassan Abdallah
tion of the airflow rate is considered an indicator for the chimney
performance, the maximum airflow rate around 12 pm inside the
chimney reached 0.35 kg/s with an outdoor temperature of 29 °C
then the airflow rate decrease to 0.07 kg/s until sunset. Reduction
of aluminium surface temperature is achieved after sunset and
reached 29.5 °C during 12 am. When the sunlight struck the glass
of the chimney, short wave infrared increased chimney air cavity
and caused the aluminium plate to absorb more energy and release
heat. The average temperature of the glass surface temperature
during the hot day is 42.5 °C. Fig. 9 shows the variation of the alu-
minium surface temperature after the integration of PCM. It is
observed that the temperature decreases gradually after 12 pm
with a maximum temperature of around 47 °C during sunset. Then,
the surface temperature decreases gradually with a maximum
temperature of 34.5 °C during midnight compared to a tempera-
ture equal to 29.5 without the integration of PCM. The temperature
difference between the aluminium temperature and the outdoor
temperature was between 35 k and 10 k during the midday and
midnight, respectively. This affects strongly the airflow rate in
the chimney during the midday and after the sunset with a mini-
mum airflow of 0.69 kg/s during a hot day. As the aluminium plate
is considered the main component of the solar chimney system,
using MWCNTs for painting the aluminium plate with the integra-
tion of PCM absorbs more energy and heat during the daytime and
releases it gradually during the night time. The temperature differ-
ence between the surface temperature of the aluminium and chim-
ney air cavity creates a pressure difference, which causes air
movement inside the chimney due to the stack effect. These effects
are very low after midnight and until sunrise.
Therefore, the thermal image of solar chimney helps analyse the
thermal gradient of the aluminium plate and air cavity due to the
effect of solar radiation absorption and integration of PCM.
For the thermal storage system, using Phase Change Material
has a significant influence on the system performance. However,
the airflow in the solar chimney during nighttime tends to be
higher with the integration of PCM than without PCM and this
agrees with the previous research [16,17]. Based on the evaluation
Fig. 9. The aluminium surface temperature of the chimney integrated with PCM.
7
Energy & Buildings 239 (2021) 110854
of solar chimney and integration of PCM and painting of MWCNTs,
improvement of a solar chimney for night ventilation was achieved
for night ventilation with a rise of airflow rate after sunset and this
cause transfer heat to the water tube inside the chimney and cause
rise of water temperature during the whole day. Therefore, integra-
tion of solar chimney and PCM with the cooling wind tower on the
top of the test house will be done in the second stage to evaluate
thermal comfort inside the test house during the whole day using
the passive cooling and solar chimney improvement with water
heater as a compact system.
4.2. Temperature and humidity evaluation inside the test house
According to the integration of improvement solar chimney sys-
tem with a cooling wind tower on the top of the test house, the
indoor environment was monitored inside the room during the
hot periods. Reduction of indoor temperature is achieved with
80% of the acceptable range according to the adaptive comfort
standard as shown in Fig. 10 during two hot days in the summer
season with different outdoor maximum temperature. The outdoor
temperature decreases gradually after it passes through the wet
pad with a maximum temperature difference equal 8 k during
day time and minimum temperature difference equal 4 k during
night time. Statistical analysis of indoor temperature after cooing
was done that range between 29.5 and 31.2 with a mean ± SD
equal 29.8 ± 1.
Fig. 11 shows the psychrometric chart of the condition inside
the room after cooling. Indoor room relative humidity after cooling
is within the acceptable range according to past literature [3]. Most
of the indoor condition after the sunset and night time is very close
to the summer comfort zone.
4.3. Thermal comfort evaluation
The calculation of PMV and PPD was done based on Fanger’s
model. The condition is within the comfort range except during
the middle of the day. While during night time, it is within the rec-
A. Sayed Hassan Abdallah Energy & Buildings 239 (2021) 110854

Fig. 10. Temperature pattern inside the living room inside the test house with relation to outdoor temperature during two hot days.

Fig. 11. The psychrometric chart of the indoor condition after integration of improved solar chimney and wind tower.

ommended range ( 0.5 < PMV<+0.5) as shown in Fig. 12 (a). Fig. 12

(b) shows the relation between PMV and operative temperature.
There is a strong correlation with a linear regression coefficient
equal 0.98 that represents the sensitivity of occupants existing
inside the living room concerning operative temperature as shown
in Fig. 12 (b). Therefore, indoor cooling is achieved inside the room
during day and night time.

5. Conclusion

Experimental investigation of low energy new passive air cool-

ing system with solar chimney and the water heater was studied to
be applied during day and night time based on the improvement of
solar chimney. Results indicated:

 The water heating system integrated with solar chimney

achieved water temperature equal to 58 °C and 40 °C during
2 pm and after sunset respectively. Due to the characteristic
of the clear sky all the year in Assiut and hot arid climate,
achieving of hot water from solar chimney based on solar radi-
ation and thermal storage will be obtained all the year.
 A significant increase for the average airflow rate in the solar
chimney equal 1.5 kg/s corresponding to high solar radiation
of 1089 W/m2 and the minimum airflow rate in the chimney
after the sunset is 0.69 kg/s during a hot day.
 Significant reduction for room air temperature between 8 and
4 k during day and night time respectively and improvement
in building energy conservation, especially for cooling demand.
 Integration of Phase Change Material with the aluminium plate,
and painting it with black paint mixed with MWCNTs, achieves
high performance for the solar chimney after sunset. MWCNTs
increase the solar radiation absorption in the chimney and ther-
Fig. 12. (a) The calculation of PMV for the indoor condition; (b) The relation
mal conductivity of PCM for night ventilation. between the PMV and operative.

8
A. Sayed Hassan Abdallah
 The new system can achieve air cooling system with fresh air
and heating water that can be applied easily on the upper floor
of Egyptian housing of hot arid climate based on Egyptian
Market.
Finally, future research is recommended to apply this new com-
pact system for a multi-floor building in a hot arid climate using
numerical simulation.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
The research leading to these results has received funding from
Science & Technology Development Fund (Ministry of State for Sci-
entific Research, Egypt), project no. 30067.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2021.110854.
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