Sustainable Building Design in Cold Regions: High Performance Envelope and Façade-Integrated Photovoltaic/Solar Thermal Systems at High Latitudes

Northern housing entails both climatic and socio-economic challenges. Severe weather, high energy cost and fuel dependency on external supply call for a high-performance envelope system that can generate energy from renewable sources while functioning effectively as a passive building enclosure. In response to the challenges, a pre-fabricated building envelope system has been developed at Concordia University, Montreal, integrating solar-harnessing technologies onto a structural insulated panel (SIP) envelope system manufactured by industry. The envelope design aims to achieve low heat loss, on-site generation of electrical and thermal energy, as well as considerable cost offsets from fast construction, transportation savings, and energy production. This paper presents the experimental and simulation findings of the solar envelope prototype combining several modular components such as unglazed transpired collector (UTC), transpired glazing (TG), and photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) collectors on a SIP wall. Different façades incorporating solar collectors have been quantitatively evaluated and compared in respect to their suitability for cold climate.