Abstract
This paper investigates the effect of using a polymeric phase change material (PCM) in a solar hot air collector mounted on an inclined roof using real recorded climatic data for the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The solar system is intended to heat and cool the residential unit in the winter and summer. Carrier commercial software is used to estimate the thermal load of the building. FLUENT software and an in-house code are used to simulate the collector. The equations were algebraized using the control volume approach for this purpose. In this paper, the collector temperature and the outlet air are analyzed for collector modes with and without PCM at different times of the day. The findings suggest that increasing the collector length may raise the temperature of the outflow air. Inlet air temperature has an important effect on the outlet temperature. The highest collector outlet temperature is recorded at 15:00. The use of PCM causes the outlet air temperature to reduce in the early hours of the day, but the outlet temperature is enhanced in the last hours of the day. It is predicted that this system can heat a 95-m2 residential unit in the winter from 11.30 AM to noon. This system can provide 41% of the energy required for unit heating per day.