Solar Heating and Cooling in hot and humid climates - sol.e.h.2 Project Introduction

Energy saving in buildings is important to modern urbanization and especially challenging under the hot and humid climatic conditions of Guangdong (P. R. China). Minimized energy demand for heating (domestic hot water), ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) in buildings is a major premise for the implementation of solar HVAC systems. The nearly zero energy building concept and solar HVAC complement each other well and are under investigations in the Austrian-Chinese research project sol.e.h.(2). The implementation of an optimized building (Passive House) and solar cooling supported HVAC lead to a joint integral solution far beyond state of the art. Innovative applications of solar cooling components and new building integration methods for this very specific climate in Guangdong region are the core of this project. The joint integral system will further be developed under appropriate innovative business models. This paper introduces the current status of buildings and solar cooling in China and presents the project idea and its methodology used to develop a solar driven nearly zero energy building in the course of sol.e.h.(2) project.