EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF SOLAR CHIMNEY PERFORMANCE FOR PASSIVE HEATING

Abstract

An experimental investigation on solar chimney used for heating under climate of Iraq
is carried out. Experiments were conducted on the chimney installed on vertical wall with
absorber plate placed at the front side of the air gap. The solar chimney attached to room of
dimensions (2.5×1.29×1.07) m. The chimney is studied to measure the effect of the air gap
width with constant height of (1.07 m). Three widths are tested, namely, 0.2 m, 0.3 m and
0.4 m. The experimental results showed that the solar chimney can achieve about (13 °C)
difference in temperature between indoor and outdoor as well as it gives acceptable
difference in partial cloudy days. The results also indicated that the best performance of
solar chimney is with 0.3m air gap width.