Public Research Seminar by Sustainable Energy and Environment Thrust, HKUST(GZ) - Study on Building Integrated Photovoltaic Thermoelectric Envelope System

Based on the idea of dynamically self-regulating the heat flow of the building envelope, this study proposes a photovoltaic thermoelectric building-integrated building envelope system, which uses photovoltaic cells to convert solar energy into DC power in real time, drives semiconductor thermoelectric modules, and realizes heat flow control of building envelopes hour by hour. Based on the heat transfer characteristics of photovoltaic cells, thermoelectric modules, and walls, an integrated mathematical model of resistance-capacitance-equivalent coupled with thermal resistance and heat capacity, and an analytical heat transfer model for the non-uniform temperature field on the inner surface of the enclosure, are constructed. Dimensional test bench data verification was provided. Compared with the traditional thermal insulation envelope, under typical daily conditions in areas with hot summer and cold winter, the heat gain of the envelope structure can be reduced by 70%. Aiming at the problem that the system cannot work at night and the heat flow is unstable, a system structure is proposed to couple the battery with it. Under the setting of the model predictive control algorithm, the real zero energy consumption and zero heat flow condition can be realized.