Building facade surface for seasonal selectiveness of solar irradiation absorption and reflection

Abstract

Disclosed are various building facade surface configurations and related methods. An exemplary facade includes grooved cavities that are configured in a manner that reflects summer (cooling season) insolation and absorbs winter (heating season) insolation. The effective absorptivities of the exemplary facade for various cavity reflectance characteristics, i.e., a wide range of diffuse and specular reflectance characteristics, are evaluated using a Monte Carlo model. The calculations in an illustrated embodiment are performed for the latitude of 41° N where both heating and cooling loads are significant. Embodiments of facades and other structures are similarly within the scope of the disclosure for locations of different latitudes and longitudes.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This patent application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61 / 435,407, filed Jan. 24, 2011. The aforementioned patent application is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.COPYRIGHT NOTICE[0002]A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the reproduction by anyone of the patent document or patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office, patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever.BACKGROUND[0003]1. Field of the Disclosure[0004]The present disclosure relates to methods for improved building structures and the resulting structures. Particularly, the present disclosure is directed to improved techniques for configuring building surfaces, such as facades and roofs, as appropriate, to improve energy efficiency.[0005]2. Description of Re...

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Benefits of technology

[0008]To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the disclosure, as embodied herein, the disclosure includes methods and structures that provide improved building facades, as well as vehicles and other structures.

[0009]In some embodiments, an exemplary facade surface configuration presented herein absorbs the maximum, or substantially the maximum, of solar energy received through the sun-facing opaque facade during heating season, while it reflects the sun's rays during cooling season (summers). This exploits the fact that the solar altitude angle for a given solar azimuth angle is larger during cooling season than that of heating season. The variations of the solar altitude, calculated based on trigonometric relations, clearly indicates that solar altitude angles for all latitudes are significantly larger during summer months than those for winter months, especially for locations that have significant heating and cooling seasons. For example, for New York City with average latitude of 41° N for most of the midday the solar altitude is larger than 60° for summer days while it is less than 40° for winter months. The foregoing principle can be applied to building roofs or other structures or even vehicles (e.g., cargo trailers, trains, cargo containers, other vehicles, etc.), as appropriate. While the present disclosure illustrates exemplary embodiments of a building facade for a latitude proximate New York City, it will be appreciated that the present disclosure encompasses facades for every latitude.

[0010]More generally, the disclosure provides a structure having a surface of a structure that is adapted and configured to reflect a majority of solar radiation in summer mont

Problems solved by technology

However, to the knowledge of Applicant, almost no research and development has been performed on the opaque part of the facade.

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