Enhancing heat efficiency in arid environments using a PVT collector for revealed facade shelter

In Ouargla neighboring (Algeria), the harsh climate conditions and the isolation of agricultural areas pose some difficulties for developing agriculture.For lightening climatic constraints, thermal comfort in farmer homes is required.The present study investigated the thermal behavior in a 3D model of an existing earth-sheltered room using Ansys Software.To improve room heating on the coldest winter day, different room designs are investigated.The variant equipped with a photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) solar collector shows significant thermal comfort, where for an ambient temperature of around 4C, the indoor temperature in the living space reaches about 24C.Also, the PVT system has a low initial cost compared to a heat pump, where the gap reaches 1460 euros.In addition, the long-term exploitation of discovered faade shelters achieves an appreciable benefit against the mode of farmers' transportation between the city and the farm.