Performance evaluation of the Balcomb solar house

Conference · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1980

OSTI ID:6719712

Balcomb, J D; Hedstrom, J C; Perry, Jr, J E

Additional instrumentation was added to the Balcomb solar house for a six-week period and up to 85 channels were recorded hourly. Some new findings based on an evaluation of these data are presented. (1) The thermal comfort characteristics of four rooms are documented. (2) Relative humidity in the living room varies from 30 to 50%; these data are used to infer an evaporation rate in the house of about 25 kg of water/day. The evaporation rate correlates reasonably well with greenhouse temperature. (3) Heat storage in the greenhouse floor is estimated at about 0.30 kWh/day-m/sup 2/ based on temperatures measured at four depths. (4) Several thermal characteristics of the rock bed are deduced but it is evident that the heat flow is not yet completely understood.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 6719712
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-80-3453; CONF-801218-4
• Resource Relation: Conference: Colloque solaire international, Nice, France, 11 Dec 1980
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
HOUSES
SOLAR SPACE HEATING
PASSIVE SOLAR HEATING SYSTEMS
PERFORMANCE
SOLAR HEATING SYSTEMS
ADOBE
AIR INFILTRATION
ATTACHED GREENHOUSES
DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEMS
EVAPORATION
HUMIDITY
HYBRID SYSTEMS
NEW MEXICO
ROCK BEDS
SENSIBLE HEAT STORAGE
THERMAL COMFORT
THERMAL MASS
BUILDING MATERIALS
BUILDINGS
ENERGY STORAGE
EQUIPMENT
GREENHOUSES
HEAT STORAGE
HEATING
HEATING SYSTEMS
MASS
MATERIALS
NORTH AMERICA
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SOLAR HEATING
SOUTHWEST REGION
SPACE HEATING
STORAGE
USA
140901* - Solar Thermal Utilization- Space Heating & Cooling