Solar thermal water heating systems reduce household energy bills by using the free solar radiation provided by the sun to heat water for residential needs. In order to eliminate the need for electricity to run a pump to drive the fluid circulation in these systems, fluid buoyancy effects can be employed to move the fluid from lower elevations to higher elevations. There are several operational...

We introduce the improved Freie Universität Berlin (FUB) high-resolution radiation scheme FUBRad and compare it to the 4-band standard ECHAM5 SW radiation scheme of Fouquart and Bonnel (FB). Both schemes are validated against the detailed radiative transfer model libRadtran. FUBRad produces realistic heating rate variations during the solar cycle. The SW heating rate response with the FB scheme...

A box-type solar heater was designed, constructed, and used to determine the effect of solar heating on quality of domestic roof-harvested rainwater (DRHRW). During testing, naturally contaminated DRHRW was harvested in Ibadan, Nigeria, and released into the system at 93.96 Lh(-1) (2.61 × 10(-5) m(3) s(-1)) in a continuous flow process. Water temperatures at inlet, within the heating chamber, a...

BACKGROUND Perioperative hypothermia is common during anesthesia and surgery and is accompanied by several complications. Forced-air warming is recognized as an effective procedure to prevent hypothermia. The aim of this study was to compare a resistive heating device with a forced-air warming device. METHODS Prospective randomized trial. SETTING heat transfer laboratory of a University hos...

Passive solar systems such as solar chimneys need solar radiation in order to work. Therefore, they cannot present stable natural ventilation when solar energy vanishes: to have a more robust and stable condition, solar energy should be stored during the day and released back during the night. Phase change materials can save additional thermal energy during the day and release it during the...

Much energy is lost through excess air flow in and out of process heating equipment. Energy saving opportunities from managing air flow include minimizing combustion air, preheating combustion air, minimizing ventilation air, and reconfiguring openings to reduce leakage. This paper identifies these opportunities and presents methods to quantify potential energy savings from implementing these e...

The airflow network model in EnergyPlus provides the ability to simulate multizone wind-driven airflows. The model is also able to simulate the impacts of forced air distribution systems, including supply and return air leaks. The air distribution system portion of the model is currently applicable for constant-air-volume systems. Future enhancements will include adding hybrid ventilation contr...