Passive solar cooling of an agricultural warehouse

The thermal performance of a warehouse subjected to three different passive cooling concepts was investigated with the aid of a computer simulation model. The passive cooling concepts included logic controlled ventilation cooling, a solar driven thermosiphon wall, and building material (thermal and radiative) property modifications together with energy storage in the bulk of the building contents. The algorithm was formed from fundamental relations for energy storage and heat transfer between the building, its contents, and the environment. The general simulation model was validated using experimental data from tobacco storage warehouses during cold weather. Sensitivity analyses were performed to show the influence of different design assumptions. A separate experiment was performed to verify the thermosiphon model accuracy. Thermal performance was evaluated using the transient tobacco temperatures during a selected time period as a function of various cooling designs. The objective was to maintain tobacco temperatures below 4/sup 0/C without mechanical refrigeration for a continuous eight week period during the winter. Results of the study show that various combination of the four passive cooling strategies can be used to meet the thermal performance objectives for a particular building and location. Results for other cooling objectives and/or different buildings and locations could bemore » predicted by appropriate changes to the input data.« less