Heat storage wall made of concrete and encapsulated water applied to mass construction social housing in temperate climates

Abstract

In Argentina there is a serious housing shortage. The National State responds to this shortage in a quantitative rather than in a qualitative way, avoiding low maintenance architectural and technological solutions for this problem. For this purpose, the passive solar technologies are a truly viable alternative. Therefore, this work presents the design and thermal performance of heat storage walls (HSW) made of mixed materials (concrete and water) for heating mass construction housing built by the National State of Argentina. They are prepared to be included in modules (1.2 m × 2.4 m) on the equator-facing sides since they are made of storage mass made with industrialized stackable pieces. The storage mass is made of concrete with encapsulated water in PVC pipes and it is covered with a single-glazed covering. In this work, the technological design, the industrialization, manufacture and assembly stages, and its performance are presented. Simulations of the systems incorporated into a house were carried out and they were then compared to the most widespread technologies (solid concrete walls). Experimental scale measurements of these systems were also made in a 1.08 m3 insulated enclosure. The simulations did not show very significant differences among the analyzed systems, but they allowed us to define the use of single glazing as a transparent covering. The measurements show the different loading dynamics of each type of wall and confirm a difference of 2 °C among the internal temperatures, recorded inside the enclosures in favor of the mixed storage wall. The carried out works enabled us to install those systems in social housing in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.