Experimental study and thermal behavior analysis of an attached sunspace with water additional mass

Experimental study and also thermal simulation of a full cycle of passive solar energy system has been investigated in this paper. An attached sunspace modelwas set up and was installed adjacent to a typical residential room and was monitored. Solar insolation and temperature data in outdoor, attached sunspace andthe desired room were recorded every 15 minutes and the results were used to validate the thermal simulationprocess according to the fact that these records were fora short period of heating season. Good agreements were found between experimental and numerical results .Simulation software EnergyPlus is employed in this study for the whole period of heating season. A comparison has been made in this paper betweenattached sunspace with and without additional thermal mass and the importance of incorporating additional thermal mass to reduce the daily temperaturefluctuations has been emphasized. Finally two more systems with different volumes for both sunspace andadditional thermal mass have been considered and themost appropriate one with the best temperature profile for desired room, has been chosen. The results showthat daily temperature difference between the room without attached sunspace and the room with appropriate attached sunspace exceeds 6 °C andexploiting of this appropriate system for the specific considered city is reasonable.