Abstract: “A new solar-absorbing Façade Panel has been developed in this government-funded project to cope with the urgent needs on building sustainability research, in particular the renewable energy applications. In this paper, two related inventions, namely the water-filled glazing with submerged heat exchanger and the heat-pipe-ring embedded curtain walling, are described. With the use of validated self-developed simulation programs, the energy performance of the glazed and opaque areas of the panel are assessed separately. Performance comparisons were made with the conventional curtain walling. The findings support that with an appropriate coverage of the new Façade Panel on the building envelope, as well as the appropriate area ratio of the glazed to opaque surfaces, this innovative Façade is able to reduce significantly the solar transmission and to generate adequate hot water with promising thermal efficiency.”

Keywords: solar-absorbing panel, water-filled glazing, heat pipe technology, building energy conservation, curtain wall