Experimental study of a earth-to-air heat exchanger coupled to a photovoltaic system

Coupling a building to the ground as a heat sink through earth-to-air heat exchangers can reduce the cooling energy demand during summer The fans for circulating the air through the heat exchangers are usually grid connected. However given that the cooling loads are almost in phase with the available solar irradiance, an innovative system coupling an earth-to-air heat exchanger with a simple photovoltaic array has been designed. The experimental results are presented and discussed in this paper The system was installed and studied in Athens, Greece during a summer period. The obtained results showed that the overall thermal performance of the system and the efficiencies involved indicate that earth-to-air heat exchangers are an interesting hybrid cooling technique and another field of application of photovoltaics.