Coupling a sunspace to a hyper insulated building: Field tests of different configurations to optimize the energy and comfort performance

An experimental study was conducted on a hyper insulated building coupled with a sunspace, to investigate the role of the major design parameters (depth, glass percentage and typology, etc.) and mechanically controlled convective transfer (VMC) on the energy performance. Based on 132 dynamic simulations, a modifiable sunspace was built on the sun-exposed side of a nZEB mock-up in Central Italy and monitored via an extensive sensor network. The conditioning system tracked the seasonal set point via a bang-bang controller, while the VMC was governed by a bespoke temperature-driven logic. In a previous run, irradiative and combined irradiative-convective modes were tested on a 30% glazed sunspace: VMC was found to dump the daily energy consumption to -27%. Then; a second monitoring campaign compared the 30% and 50% configurations. The former guaranteed very stable indoor conditions (20.1±0.3°C), yet the latter still preserved global comfort at a remarkably lower (-40%) energy expenditure.