Search

Countless years have been spent researching the strategies necessary for improving the energy consumption of buildings globally. There have been numerous attempts at achieving both passive solutions and enhancing and optimising the existing active systems. This paper seeks to review, analyse and summarise the possibilities of using thermoelectricity in two different contexts to the integration with buildings, integrated thermoelectric systems, and non-integrated thermoelectric systems. The utilisation of thermoelectricity in cohorts with existing renewable technologies and the utilisation of thermoelectric systems that operate individually, both have the potential to provide the occupants of a building with conditions pertinent to thermal and visual comfort. The results in this paper are classified according to the integration types of thermoelectric systems within different parts of the fabric of a building while maintaining an active role in enhancing the building envelope and self-contained thermoelectric systems that sustain a passive role for the same. The introduction to this paper also gives a very broad and surface-level insight into categorisation of different kinds of thermoelectric systems that are being studied and researched across the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bedingt durch die Einspeisetarife des erneuerbare Energien Gesetzes (EEG) war die Realisierung von Photovoltaikanlagen auf und an Gebäuden eher ein von Investoren betriebenes Geschäft. Mit dem deutlichen Rückgang der Systempreise in den zurückliegenden Jahren gewinnt der Eigenverbrauch des erzeugten Solarstroms zunehmend an Bedeutung. Photovoltaikanlagen können in herkömmlicher Weise an der Außenhülle von Gebäuden befestigt werden oder als Teil der Bauwerkshülle eingesetzt werden. In beiden Anwendungsfällen können dabei auch bauphysikalische Aspekte wie Beschattung und Blendschutz übernommen werden. In integrierter Form ergeben sich interessante wirtschaftliche Aspekte, da die Kosten der kompensierten Außenhülle entfallen. Functional or building-integrated photovoltaic façade elements. Due to the feed-in-tariffs according to the Renewable Energy Source Act, the realization of solar plants on buildings or at buildings used to be mainly a business for investors. As the system prices kept falling significantly in the last few years, self-consumption of solar power is getting increasingly important. Solar plants can be fastened to the building envelope in the usual way, or can also be used as a part of the building envelope. In both cases of application, solar plants can also fulfill structural-physical tasks like shading and glare shielding. With building-integrated solar plants, there are interesting economic aspects, as the solar plant lowers the costs of the building envelope by replacing a part of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• It summarizes the building integrated solar concentrating systems according to different functions. • It introduces the demands, types, applications and structures of the building integrated solar concentrating systems. • It presents prospects/directions/policies around the world towards the building integrated solar concentrating systems. In the building sector, concerns towards the vast energy consumption has promoted the development of renewable energy technologies. In this regards, the solar concentration devices show a promising concept for building applications. However, the solar concentrators for application in buildings have many restrictions, which are different from the traditional solar concentrators. The main objective of this paper is to present a concise review on the building integrated concentrating devices, that have their own characteristics and multiple functions. This paper made a classification based on device's functions, i.e. building integrated concentrated photovoltaic systems (BICPV), building integrated concentrating solar thermal (BICST) and building integrated concentrating solar daylighting (BICSD) and the combination of functions, i.e. BICPV/T, BICPV/D, BICST/D and BICPV/T/D. At the same time, this paper presented an elaborate introduction of the demands, types and applications of the building integrated concentrating devices and prospects/ directions/ policies about these technologies around the world. The review would provide important information for the actual engineering of building integrated concentrating devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]