Journal of Korean Institute of Architectural Sustainable Environment and Building Systems ISSN:1976-6483(Print) 2586-0666(Online) 한국건축친환경설비학회논문집

Recently, the photovoltaic thermal (PVT) system, in which a solar collector that absorbs thermal energy is attached to the back of a PV panel to simultaneously generate electricity and heat, is garnering attention as one of the renewable energy systems. This study developed a prototype lightweight- CW.L-PVTs previously developed to be installed on the building’s outer wall using the curtain wall method by replacing the existing 3mm copper absorber with the 0.3mm aluminum absorber. Furthermore, in an attempt to examine the system performance, a field study was conducted according to the ISO 9806 test methods for assessing solar thermal collectors to compare and analyze the thermal and electrical efficiency for each material. At first, the Al absorber was expected to show a poor thermal and electrical performance due to lower heat conductivity compared to the Cu absorbers. However, with its good formability, the Al absorber was designed to have a thickness of 0.3mm, showing a faster heat conductivity than the Cu absorber. As a result, the thermal efficiency coefficient and the electrical efficiency coefficient of the CW.L-PVTs with Al absorbers were approximately 6% and 1% higher than those of the CW.L-PVTs with Cu absorbers, respectively.