Solar-system house

Abstract

A solar system house having a solar-heat collecting portion on a roof, a solar-heat collecting duct communicated with the solar-heat collecting portion; and a handling box connected to the solar-heat collecting portion. The handling box includes a back-flow damper that prevent a back-flow toward the solar-heat collecting duct, an air-flow change damper that allow selection between a descending duct and an exhaust duct opened to the outside, a solar-heat collecting fan positioned between the back-flow chamber and the air-flow change damper, and a driving motor for rotating the solar-heat collecting fan in the handling box, which is a direct current (DC) motor to be driven by a solar-battery and a rechargeable battery electrically connected to the solar-battery.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention relates to a solar system house designed to use solar energy as a heat source, for warming a room or a building by air heated by solar radiation.

[0003] 2. Description of the Related Art

[0004] The increase in CO2 is the consequence of the conventional human technological activities and reaches a level enough to pose a danger to a global environment itself at present. The reasons are mostly depended on a civilized life with excessive energy consumption promoted in industrially advanced nations. If many developing nations set their sights on the advanced nations as their ideal technological behaviors, they will have no other choice but to be the ruin of them all. However, it is difficult to say that the people of the developing nations should give up “enriched their lives” being enjoyed in the advanced nation. An excessive consumption of resource energies may be not a privilege granted only to the advanced nations. At present, the duty of each advanced nation is to generate any method for decreasing the application of loads to the environment in a quest to rise the standards of living but not to decrease thereof.

[0005] Therefore, it has been demanded to optimize the usage of sun energies for warming, cooling, ventilating, and dehumidifying the interior of a room, and supplying hot-water by constructing residences and buildings that are flexibly cope with external environment conditions, in addition to depend on any weather factor such as wind.

[0006] By the way, the conventional Japanese house design is characterized by the follows. That is, it has unique building components such as big roof, deep eaves, large opening, edges, open plane surface, high floor level from the ground, and tokonoma (i.e., a niche or an alcove in a Japanese home for displaying a flower arrangement or the like).

[0007] Such peculiar features of the Japanese home might be born from the fusion or interaction with nature in Japan. For example, the large opening and high-leveled floor systems are obviously cope with climate of high temperature and high humidity in Japan. It was necessary to provide such a design for obtaining the cool by pulling a current of air.

[0008] Accordingly, such a required design has been easily attained by a distinctive method of Japanese traditional construction (i.e., wood construction supported or framed with timbers). However, the Japanese construction method has a major disadvantage with respect to the utilization of solar heat.

[0009] According to the Japanese construction method, support poles are built at first and then a roof is placed thereon to freely provide walls and windows. In this case, however, it gets in a bad way in terms of adiabatic efficiency and air-tightness of the building. Therefore, the area or the number of building components for obtaining thermal capacities is restricted.

[0010] In this kind of the Japanese traditional home, there is a way to utilize solar heat for climate control in the home. That is, a large opening is provided on the south of the home to uptake a large amount of solar radiation in winter and air is permitted to pass through a part of the home in summer.

[0011] Furthermore, a sunroom may be additionally provided on the outside of a living room as a hothouse for taking up warmed air from the sunroom to the living room.

[0012] In this case, air is only provided as a thermal storage means. However, as shown in FIG. 11, it is possible to constantly supply a thermal energy to the inside of room 53 through an air-circulation passage 54. The air-circulation passage 54 is formed by placing a cover plate 52 made of a glass material on a concrete outer wall 51 with a space between them. In this case, the concrete outer wall 51 may be provided as a heat accumulator for supplying heat in a stable manner.

[0013] However, these structural designs are only used for the room space that looks to almost south, so that there is a large temperature difference between the room facing south and another room facing north.

[0014] By the way, the U.S. Pat. No. 4,304,219 (Currie, issued on Dec. 8, 1981) entitled “Solar Energy Control System” discloses a heat-accumulating system that accumulates solar heat in itself. The heat-accumulator is one of the components that make up the system and exists in isolation from the residence or building. Therefore, it does not use the residence or building itself to collect and accumulate solar heat.

[0015] By the way, the present inventor has been invented a solar system house as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,729 (Okumura, issued on Nov. 6, 1990) entitled “Solar-System House” and assigned to Kabushiki Kaisha Ohem Kenkyujyo (Shizuoka, Japan).

[0016] In the U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,729, as shown in FIG. 12, the solar system house comprises a solar heating collector in the form of a roof of the house. An air flow path 2 is formed immediately underneath a metal roof plate 1 made of a colored steel plate having a roof pitch (i.e., extending along the slope thereof). One end of the air flow path 2 is opened as an ambient air intake 3 on eaves or another portion and the other end thereof is communicated with a ridge duct 4 provided as one for collecting heat.

[0017] A loft 29 is an open space under the roof 1, where a handling box 5 having a back-flow damper 6, a heat-accumulating fan 7, and an air-flow change damper 8 is provided. One of outlets of the air-flow change damper 8 in the handling box 5 is opened to the outside through an exhaust duct 9. Also, one of inlets of the back-flow damper 6 in the handling box 5 is communicated with the ridge duct 4 through a duct 32, while the other outlet of the air-flow change damper 8 is connected to the upper end of a descending duct 10. The bottom end of the descending duct 10 is provided as an under-floor heat accumulator that opens to an air-circulating space 13 between a dirt-floor concrete 11 and a floor panel 12. Furthermore, there is formed a floor air outlet 14 from the air-circulating space 13 from the interior of a room.

[0018] Also, a hot-water pumping coil 15 is placed between the handling box 5 and the ridge duct 4 and connected to both a hot-water reserving tank 17 and a circulation pump 19 via a circulation piping 16. In addition, the hot-water reserving tank 17 is connected to hot-water supplying tube 21 for supplying hot water to a bathroom and a kitchen. As shown in the figure, there is a hot-water supplying boiler 18 is installed on the hot-water reserving tank 17 for heating up the hot-water.

[0019] In this manner, the roof plate 1 made of a steel plate being heated by solar radiation heats the air introduced into the air flow path 2. Then the heated air ascends along the pitched roof.

[0020] Then, the heated air is collected in the ridge duct 4 and subsequently introduced into the handling box 5 by means of a fan 7. The heated air further flows down into the descending duct 10 and enters into the air-circulating space 13 between the dirt-floor concrete 11 provided as a heat accumulator and the floor panel 12. In the air-circulating space 13, the heated air performs three different heating actions of directly heating the underside of the floor via the floor panel 12, being accumulated in the dirt-floor concrete 11, and being provided as warm air that is directly blown into the interior of the room through a floor air outlet 14.

[0021] On the other hand, a hot-water pumping coil 15 heats a thermal medium that is fed from the hot-water reserving tank 17 using a circulation pump 19, and then it is stored as a hot water in the hot-water reserving tank 17. Subsequently, the hot water is further heated by a hot-water supplying boiler 18 for supplemental heating and then supplied to each part of the house via the hot-water supplying tube 21.

[0022] The solar system house having such a configuration is operated by the handling box 5. Comparing with other components, the heat-accumulating fan 7 is driven most frequently in the handling box 5. The fan 7 is generally activated using a drive motor connecting to a power supply (in this case, a commercially-available 100 V power supply), so that major portion of the running cost of the whole house may be its electricity cost. It is curiously to say that the object of the solar system house is the utilization of solar energy. Therefore, there is the growing need for using the natural energy for operating the handling box to reduce such a running cost.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0023] In view of the problems found in the prior art, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a solar system house to resolve the existing problems found in the conventional solar heating systems, allowing: the optimization of the use of solar energy for heating, cooling, ventilating, and dehumidifying the interior of a room in addition to the use of wind and other climate conditions; the supply of hot water by constructing a residence or building that flexibly adapts to the outside environmental conditions; the reduction in running cost of the system by the use of a solar battery; and an appropriating operation of the system in response to the quantity of solar radiation.

[0024] To solve the problems found in the prior art and achieve the object of the present invention, at first, the solar system house of the present invention comprises: a solar-heat collecting portion on a roof, a heat-collecting duct communicating with the solar-heat collecting portion, an air-flow change damper switching a communication among a back-flow chamber to the heat-collecting duct, a descending duct, and an exhaust duct for opening to the outside; and a handling box in which a heat-accumulating fan is provided between the back-flow chamber and the air-flow chamber, wherein a direct current (DC) motor is used as a driving motor for the air-accumulating fan of the handling box and connected to a power supply which is a solar battery or a rechargeable battery to be connected to the solar battery.

[0025] Secondary, the solar-heat collecting portion is constructed of a steel roof plate, an amorphous silicon solar battery layered on the steel roof plate, a resin coating applied on a surface of the amorphous silicon solar battery, and an air flow path having a roof pitch directly underneath the roof plate.

[0026] Thirdly, a nighttime radiational cooling is performed during the summertime, where an air-flow change damper is communicated with an exhaust duct to perform an exhausting operation in the daytime and the air-flow chamber is communicated with a descending duct in the nighttime to perform an intake of the air into the interior of room.

[0027] Fourthly, a DC motor is used as a drive motor of both back-flow damper and air-flow change damper and connected to a rechargeable battery as a power source.

[0028] Fifthly, a temperature sensor is installed on the heat-collecting duct, where the drive motor for driving the heat-actuating fan is switched on/off and the damper is opened/closed in response to a temperature detected by the temperature sensor.

[0029] Sixthly, the heat-collecting duct is provided as a ridge duct to be installed in the interior of house, or a duct on the roof to be installed on the exterior of house.

[0030] Seventhly, the bottom end of the descending duct is opened to an under-floor air-circulating space, where a brow-off orifice is formed from the under-floor air-circulating space to the interior of room, or the under-floor air-circulating space is a space between the heat-accumulating dirt-floor concrete and the floor panel.

[0031] Eighthly, the bottom end of the descending duct is directly opened to the interior of room, or opened to the under-floor air-circulating space and also opened to the interior of room.

[0032] In accordance with the present invention, at first, the present invention is characterized by the accumulation of heat on the roof. In general, we can say that something characterizing the solar energy as an energy is that it can be “thinly, widely, and equally” provided. The solar energy is not like energy to be obtained from oil that intensively generates an extremely high temperature, so that it is not appropriate for a large-scaled intensive electric power generation. That is, the use of solar energy is actually realized and satisfied by the fact that each of building has its own roof on which the solar energy can be “thinly, widely, and equally” provided and good agreement with its character as energy.

[0033] Therefore, the solar system house of the present invention collects solar energy and introduces it into the inside of the building by means of “roof” that receives the solar energy on its surface area which is broader than any other part of the building with respect of receiving solar radiation. Depending on each geographic area, there is a height limit of the buildings, which is restrict an intake of solar radiation into the interior of room. In this case, however, the “roof” is able to receive the solar energy in abundance. More specifically, the room has not only the original function as a shelter for preventing the inside of house from bad weather but also the additional function of introducing “heat” into the inside of house.

[0034] Next, the present invention is also characterized by transferring heat by means of air. Conventionally, it is generally performed that heat is transferred to water provided as a heat-transferring medium and then introduced into the interior of room using the water. In the solar system house of the present invention, on the other hand, “air” is used as a heat-transferring medium so that the air is warmed and introduced into the house.

[0035] The reason of without using water as a heat-transferring medium is that many problems are included in the process of accumulating heat in water. For example, water should be held without leaking any drop thereof, water may be boiled by the thermal energy so that there is a need to endure the vapor pressure of the boiling, water may be often frozen, the tube in which water flows may be expanded or shrunk. On the other hand, the air does not wet someone so that the leakage of air does not cause the inconvenience to someone without being noticed. Furthermore, the air is a gas, so that it is not boiled. Therefore, the use of air is quit free from care.

[0036] Furthermore, the power supply of the heat-accumulating fan of the handling box, the damper motor, and the heat-water pump in the daytime may use both the solar battery and the rechargeable battery, which can be adjusted appropriately to save energy.

[0037] Furthermore, the solar battery generates sufficient electric power when the solar radiation is strong. As a result, the heat-accumulating fan can be activated in response to the degree of solar radiation, for example the air volume of the heat-accumulating fan can be increased. In this case, more specifically, the fan in the handling box does not use a commercially available power supply as its power source. It is electrically connected to the solar battery stacked on the roof, so that the solar battery can be automatically activated when there is sufficient solar radiation and automatically controlled in an appropriate manner, providing substantial energy savings.

[0038] According to the present invention, a solar battery is integrally combined in a roof plate provided as a construction material. Thus, solar heat can be simultaneously obtained together with electricity. In addition, there is no need to prepare any place specific for the solar battery. Furthermore, there is no need to prevent the roof plate from overheating to be caused by solar radiation. The roof structure can be also used as a support of the solar battery. Thus, it is possible to omit the cost of the support. The solar battery can be simultaneously installed when the roof is constructed, so that cost of constructing the solar battery can be omitted. In this case, an efficiency of the solar battery is only a few percent with respect to the obtained solar energy, so that there is no substantial effects on the property of accumulating solar heat.

[0039] In addition, the amorphous silicon solar battery comprises an integral combination with the steel plate to construct a surface battery module that is backed by the steel roof plate. Therefore, this solar battery can be bent up and down and keeps its battery function even if it is bent at an electric generating portion). Therefore, the solar battery can be applied on various forms and styles of roof materials.

[0040] Furthermore, the electric generation property the solar battery can be maintained because of the following reasons. That is, in the solar battery made of amorphous silicon, the decrease in an ability of electric generation is comparatively low in response to the increase in temperature. In addition, the roof plate is prevented from the increase in temperature as the air passing through the air flow path that extends along a roof pitch is formed immediately bellow the roof plate.

[0041] According to the present invention during the nighttime, specifically, the air cooled by radiational cooling can be introduced into the interior of room through the solar-heat collecting portion formed on the roof, so that it increases the comfort of people in the room.

[0042] According to the present invention the electricity generated by the solar battery can be used as an electric power to be supplied to the damper-driving motor, so that the running cost can be further decreased.

[0043] According to the present invention, the timing of exhausting-operation in the summertime and the timing of heat-accumulating operation in the wintertime can be appropriately controlled on the basis of the temperatures detected by temperature sensors.

[0044] According to the present invention, the duct provided as a heat-accumulating box is a ridge duct to be placed in the inside of house, so that the duct can be placed using the space of ridge without taking up a space in the room.

[0045] According to the present invention, the duct provided as a heat-accumulating box is a roof-mounted duct, so that a duct-mounting work can be performed from the outside concurrently with the roof construction work. Therefore, the duct can be installed in any house or building without having enough ridge space of roof.

[0046] According to the present invention, the lower end of the descending duct is opened to the under-floor air-circulating space and provided with a blow-off orifice that blows the air from the under-floor air-circulating space to the interior of room. On the other hand, the conventional heating appliances mainly used at the present, such as air conditioners and fan heaters, are the so-called “warm-air heating”. Therefore, the present invention is the so-called “low-temperature radiation heating” that uses radiation heat provided as the warm air passing through the under-floor, so that a wide area of the floor can be warmed by a comparatively low temperature.

[0047] It is noted that the “warm-air heating” is an intermittent heating and causes the substantially large temperature difference between upper and lower spaces of the room. On the other band, the “low-temperature radiation heating” realizes the comfortable interior of the room and warms from legs by heat conducting through the floor, without generating such a temperature difference and an unpleasant air blow. Therefore, the present invention allows the best comfortable heating conditions of “cooling head and warming legs”.

[0048] According to the present invention, the under-floor air-circulating space is a space between the heat-accumulating dirt-floor concrete and the floor panel, so that heat is accumulated under the floor. If the warm air is left alone after accumulating heat into the air on the room, it is cooled as the sun is setting.

[0049] During the daytime in cold winter, the sun radiation can be obtained though the window by means of a direct gain as it is. In this case, the room temperature can be increased by additionally obtaining a required amount of heat accumulated from the room. That is, the solar energy is unevenly distributed in the daytime. If it is accumulated and dissipated as it is into the room, the room temperature is increased over the appropriate level. In the present invention, for avoiding such a problem, there is an idea of providing two separated portions, a heat-collecting portion and a heat-accumulating portion, so that the heat collected during the daytime is accumulated in the dirt-floor concrete. The reason of using a concrete material is that the concrete has a comparatively large thermal capacity (corresponding to the amount of heat to be accumulated) and thermal conductivity (corresponding to the ease of thermal conduction). The properties of such a concrete is adaptable to a day cycle of accumulating heat during the daytime and dissipating the heat during the nighttime. As the outside temperature decreases in the nighttime, the floor dissipates the accumulated heat to warm the interior of room.

[0050] According to the present invention, the lower end of the descending duct is opened to collect heat on the room and dissipate the heat with a medium of air directly from the roof to the interior of room so as to warm a specific room in a short time and intermittently.

[0051] The above and other objects, effects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0052] FIG. 1 is a schematic vertical cross sectional diagram that illustrates a typical solar heating system house as in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[0053] FIG. 2 is a schematic front diagram that illustrates an example of a handling box to be used in the solar heating system house of the present invention;

[0054] FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective diagram as a wiring design for illustrating a method of controlling a temperature using the solar system house in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[0055] FIG. 4 is a wiring diagram of the solar system house in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[0056] FIG. 5 is a vertical cross sectional diagram of another example of ridge duct to be applied on the solar system house in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[0057] FIG. 6 is a vertical cross sectional diagram that illustrates a roof-mounted duct to be applied on the solar system house in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[0058] FIG. 7 is a vertical cross sectional diagram that illustrates a solar battery to be used in the solar system house in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[0059] FIG. 8 is a vertical cross sectional diagram that illustrates another example of heat-accumulating/dissipating portion for solar heat collected from the roof in the solar system house in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[0060] FIG. 9 is a vertical cross sectional diagram that illustrates another example of the lower end of the descending duct in the solar system house in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[0061] FIG. 10 is a vertical cross sectional diagram that illustrates another example of the lower end of the descending duct in the solar system house in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[0062] FIG. 11 is a vertical cross sectional diagram of one of the conventional systems; and

[0063] FIG. 12 is a schematic vertical cross sectional diagram that illustrates a solar heating system house described in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,729 (1990).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0064] The present invention will be described in greater detail referring to the accompanying drawings that illustrate an embodiment thereof.

[0065] The basic structure of a solar system house is the same as that of the solar system disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,729 (1990). As shown in FIG. 1, an air flow path 2 having a roof pitch is formed immediately bellow a roof plate 1 made of a color steel plate of a roof. The air flow path 2 is responsible for collecting heat from solar radiation. In addition, one end of the air flow path 2 is opened as an air inlet 3 to an eaves or the like. Furthermore, the other end of the air flow path 2 is provided as an air outlet located at an upper portion of the roof. The air outlet of the air flow path 2 is connected to a duct 31 to communicate with a lateral duct (ridge duct) 4 as a heat-collecting duct. The ridge duct 4 to be placed in a loft 29, which is a space below the backside of the roof, may be in the of a circular radial cross section as shown in FIG. 1 or of a semi-circular radial cross section. Alternatively, the heat-collecting duct may be a roof-mounted duct 36 mounted on the exterior of the house. A dirt-floor concrete 11 is used as a heat accumulator for accumulating and dissipating the solar heat collected by the structural components on the roof. Thus, there is formed an air-circulating space 13 between the dirt-floor concrete 11 and the floor panel 12. Also, there is formed a floor air outlet 14 from the air-circulating space 13 to the interior of room, so that it performs three different heating actions by: directly warming the under floor through the floor panel 12 by the heated air; accumulating the heat into the dirt-floor concrete 1 1; and blowing the air as warm wind from the floor air outlet 14 to the interior of room. In addition, a handling box 5 is placed in the loft 28 for connecting the portion of collecting solar heat and the portion of accumulating and dissipating the solar heat. The handling box 5 comprises a bake-flow damper 6, a fan 7 for collecting heat, and an air-flow change damper 8. One of the outlet sides of the air-flow change damper 8 is opened to the exterior of house via an exhaust duct 9. In addition, the other of the outlet sides of the air-flow change damper 8 is connected to the upper end of the descending duct 10 by communicating the inlet side of the back-flow damper 6 of the handling box 5 with the ridge duct 4. On the other hand, the lower end of the descending duct 10 is opened to an air-circulating space 13 between the dirt-floor concrete 11 and the floor panel 12.

[0066] A hot-water pumping coil 15 is formed between the handling box 5 or the inside thereof and the ridge duct 4. The hot-water pumping coil 15 is connected with both the hot-water reserving tank 17 and the circulation pump 19 through the circulation piping 16. In addition, the hot-water reserving tank 17 is connected to hot-water supplying tube 21 for supplying hot water to a bathroom and a kitchen. As shown in the figure, there is a hot-water supplying boiler 18 is installed on the hot-water reserving tank 17 for heating up the hot-water.

[0067] In this manner, the roof plate 1 made of a steel plate being heated by solar radiation heats the air introduced into the air flow path 2. Then the heated air ascends along the pitched roof.

[0068] Then, the heated air is collected in the ridge duct 4 and subsequently introduced into the handling box 5 by means of a fan 7. The heated air further flows down into the descending duct 10 and enters into the air-circulating space 13 between the dirt-floor concrete 11 provided as a heat accumulator and the floor panel 12. In the air-circulating space 13, the heated air performs three different heating actions of directly heating the underside of the floor via the floor panel 12, being accumulated in the dirt-floor concrete 11, and being provided as warm air that is directly blown into the interior of the room through a floor air outlet 14.

[0069] On the other hand, a hot-water pumping coil 15 heats a thermal medium that is fed from the hot-water reserving tank 17 using a circulation pump 19, and then it is stored as a hot water in the hot-water reserving tank 17. Subsequently, the hot water is further heated by a hot-water supplying boiler 18 for supplemental heating and then supplied to each part of the house via the hot-water supplying tube 21.

[0070] The solar system house that uses the heated air collected from the sunlight as shown in FIG. 1 should throw the whole air heated on the roof plate 1 out of the interior of house to the outside air during the summertime or the season of high-temperatures in which the heating is not required. In this case, the outlet of the air flow change damper 8 on the side of the descending duct 10 is closed, while the other outlet thereof on the side of the exhaust duct 9 is opened for throwing the heated air to the exterior of house through the exhaust duct 9.

[0071] By the way, the heated air heats the hot-water pumping coil 15 by passing through the handling box 5, so that hot water can be reserved using solar heat during the summertime or the season of high-temperatures. In addition, by actuating the fan 7 during the nighttime in the summer, chill of the nighttime may be introduced into the air flow path 2 immediately bellow the roof plate made of a metal and also the radiational cooling from the roof may acted on the chill. Subsequently, such cooled air may be fed through the air-circulating space between the under-floor heat accumulator ant the floor panel 12 through the descending duct 10 so as to accumulate the cooled air in the dirt-floor concrete 11.

[0072] By the way, the warm or cool heat accumulation may be performed using another component except for the dirt-floor concrete 1. For example, in FIG. 8, a heat accumulator 42 is provided in the middle of the air-circulating space 13 between the dirt-floor concrete 11 and the floor panel 12.

[0073] In this embodiment, a panel comprised of solar cells (i.e., PV panel of solar battery) 22 is placed on the roof provided as a solar-heat collecting portion. On the other hand, a silocco fan is used as a heat-collecting fan 7 of the handling box 5. In addition, a DC motor is used as a driving motor 7a for actuating the fan 7. Also, DC motors are used as driving motors 6a, 8a for actuating the inlet damper 6 and the outlet damper 8, respectively.

[0074] As shown in FIG. 7, the solar battery 22 is an amorphous silicon solar battery 22 layered on the steel plate 37 of the roof plate 1 via a filler material 38. then, a fluororsin 39 is provided as a resin coating and layered on the amorphous silicon solar battery 22 via the filler material 38, resulting in a solar battery module 40.

[0075] In this embodiment, the amorphous silicon battery 22 may be comprises of a stainless steel thin plate (not shown) of 125 &mgr;m in thickness and an amorphous silicon thin film (not shown) applied on the surface of the plate.

[0076] Accordingly, the solar battery 22 forms the solar battery module 40 by integrally combining with the roof plate 1, so that it is possible to perform the collection of heat on the roof plate 1 concurrently with the electricity generation on the solar battery 22. At this time, the efficiency of the solar battery 22 may be several % of the obtained solar energy, so that there is no substantial effect on the heat-collecting property.

[0077] Furthermore, the solar battery 22 forms the solar battery module 40 by integrally combining with the steel roof plate 37, so that the strength of the module 40 is increased because of backing with the steel roof plate 37. Therefore, the solar battery module 40 can be bent up and down, and keeps its battery function even if it is bent at an electric generating portion). Therefore, the solar battery can be applied on various forms and styles of roof materials.

[0078] In the amorphous silicon type solar battery, furthermore, the solar battery can be maintained because of the following reasons. That is, the decrease in an ability of electric generation is comparatively low in response to the increase in temperature. In addition, the roof plate is prevented from the increase in temperature as the air passing through the air flow path that extends along a roof pitch is formed immediately bellow the roof plate.

[0079] Furthermore, the roof structure itself can be also used as a support of the solar battery. Thus, it is possible to omit the cost of the support. The solar battery can be simultaneously installed when the roof is constructed, so that cost of constructing the solar battery can be omitted.

[0080] As shown in FIG. 3, the driving motor 7a of the fan 7 is connected to the solar battery 22. In addition, the rechargeable battery 23 is connected to the solar battery 22 through a DC/DC converter 33, so that the driving motor 7a is connected to the rechargeable battery 23. Furthermore, the driving motors 6a, 8a are also constructed to connect to the rechargeable battery 23.

[0081] Furthermore, the driving motor 7a of the fan 7 is connected to a commercially available alternating current (AC) power supply 34 via an AC/DC converter 35.

[0082] A relay contact R5 is inserted into an electric circuit that connects between the solar battery 22 and the fan 7 so that electricity from the solar battery 22 is able to pass through the driving motor 7a of the fan 7 and the rechargeable battery 23. In this case, however, the electricity flows through the rechargeable battery before turning on the relay contact R5 to activate the fan 7. After that, the fan 7 receives the electricity after turning on the relay contact R5.

[0083] An electric circuit of the rechargeable battery 23 activates a basic control. The relay contact R5 is responsible for turning on or off the fan 7, the relay contact TR1-4 is responsible for opening or closing the driving motors 6a, 8a of the dampers, and the relay contact R6 is responsible for turning on or off the hot-water pumping circulation pump 19.

[0084] The solar battery 22′ is only responsible for activating the hot-water pumping circulation pump 19. In this embodiment, however, it is synchronized with the activation of the fan 7 for the purpose of increasing the efficiency.

[0085] The use of the solar battery 22 will be described. In the case of using the solar battery during the winter season, it is just as in the case of the conventional example. In the wee hours of the morning, the sunlight is not yet on the roof plate 1, the temperature of air in the ridge duct 4 is low. In this case, the back-flow damper 6 closes its opening on the ridge duct 4. In addition, the air-flow change damper 8 closes its opening on the exhaust duct 9 to make a communication between the fan 7 and the descending duct 10.

[0086] The solar battery 22 generates electricity when it catches the sunlight. Subsequently, the rechargeable battery 23 is recharged by the solar battery 22 through the control device 20. If the rechargeable battery 23 is sufficiently recharged, then the circuit in the control panel of the control device 20 is activated. In addition, the fan 7 and the back-flow damper 6 in the handling box 5 and the air-flow change damper 8 are actuated in synchronization with the circuit in the control panel.

[0087] If the temperature of the inside of the ridge duct 4 increases over the predetermined temperature as the roof plate 1 catches the sunlight, the back-flow damper 6 is reversed so that it opens the side of the ridge duct 4. Then, the fan 7 starts to its rotation to collect solar heat. The outside air enters from the ambient air intake 3 of the eaves or the like into the air flow path 2 formed immediately bellow the roof panel 1 where the air is heated by the roof plate 1 being heated by the sunlight. Subsequently, the heated air is collected by the ridge duct 4 and then introduced into the handling box 5. It is noted that the presence of the solar battery 22 on the roof does not prevent the air flow path 2 from the heating by the roof plate 1 because the solar battery 22 occupies not much of surface area of the roof plate 1. The heated air introduced in the handling box 5 passes downwardly through the descending duct 10 and then enters into the air-circulating space 13 between the dirt-floor concrete 11 and the floor panel 12. Then, the heated air is allowed to perform three different heating actions of directly heating the underside of the floor via the floor panel 12, being accumulated in the dirt-floor concrete 11, being provided as warm air that is directly blown into the interior of the room through a floor air outlet 14. As a result, the room temperature is gradually increased.

[0088] Regarding the intake of hot water is performed by actuating the circulation pump 19 by pressing a specific button on the control device 20 to circulate the hot water between the hot-water pumping coil 15 and the hot-water reserving tank 17 through the circulation piping 16. By the way, the temperature of the inside of the hot-water reserving tank 17 by repeating the circulation of thermal medium so as to be flown into the hot-water pumping coil 15. If the temperature of the hot-water reserving tank 17 increases over the predetermined temperature, the pumping behavior is stopped and then the intake of hot water is braked.

[0089] At the time of activating the fan 7, a cooling fan 28 installed in the fan 7 is activated to cool the driving motor of the fan 7. Therefore, before catching the sunlight, the control relay (the relay contact R5) is being opened. Thus, the rechargeable battery 23 becomes exhausted. If the solar battery 23 is exposed to the sunlight, it generates electricity to recharge the rechargeable battery 23 (the electricity passes through the DC/DC converter 33, so that it becomes a constant voltage charge when it reaches within the predetermined range of voltages). After that, the lateral duct bimetal thermostat (MSS (MUNE Switch Summer) in the summer, MSW (MUNE Switch Winter) in the winter) is switched on, which can be synchronized with a first thermal sensor 25a described later to be used in the temperature control. After that, the rechargeable battery 23 is naturally charged up and then the electricity flows directly through the control relay (relay contact R5). If the solar battery 22 performs the insufficient electric generation, which is not enough to drive the fan 7, in case of rain or the like in spite of catching the sunlight, the charging of the rechargeable battery 23 is only performed. Therefore, by repeating the charge and discharge, it becomes a circuit (autonomous control) without using the commercially available alternating current (AC) supply 34 in terms of energy. On the other hand, when the heat is collected during the daytime of the summer or the season without requiring heating, the back-flow damper 6 is opened on the ridge duct 4. Also, the air-flow change damper 8 closes the fan 7 and the descending duct 10, allowing the communication between the fan 7 and the opening on the exhaust duct side. Accordingly, the fan 7 is activated as described above, the heated air collected in the ridge duct 4 from the ambient air intake 3 of the eaves or the like to the air flow path 2 is introduced into the handling box. Subsequently, the heated air heats the hot-water pumping coil 15 and then exhausted from the exhaust duct 9 to the exterior of house.

[0090] During the nighttime in the summer, it is just in the case of that during the daytime with the exception that the back-flow damper 6 opens the side of the lateral duct 4. The air-flow change damper 8 makes a communication between the fan 7 and the side of the descending duct 10 while closes the fan 7 and the side of the exhaust duct 9. The electric supply for the driving motor 7a of the fan 7 is changed from the rechargeable battery 23 to the AC/DC converter 35 to be connected with the alternating current (AC) power supply 34.

[0091] Under this condition, the radiational cooling can be performed by rotating the fan 7 in the handling box 5 to introduce the chill of the night from the ambient air intake 3 of the eaves or the like to the air flow path 2 formed immediately bellow the roof plate 1. Then, the chill is collected into the lateral duct 4, followed by flowing downwardly through the descending duct I 10. Consequently, the chill is introduced into the air-circulating space 13 between the heat-accumulating dirt-floor concrete 11 and the floor panel 12. It performs two different cooling actions of being accumulated in the dirt-floor concrete 11 and being provided as cool wind directly blowing into the interior of room from the air outlet 14 (radiational cooling operation during the nighttime).

[0092] Furthermore, the solar system house of the present embodiment performs the following temperature control to the effective use of the solar system house in a reasonable manner with respect to the energy-efficiency of using the solar battery 22 and the rechargeable buttery 23, or with respect to the radiation cooling and the intake of the air during the nighttime in the summer.

[0093] As shown in FIG. 3, a first thermal sensor 25a is installed for detecting the heat-collecting temperature in the ridge duct 4 and the inside thereof, and also a second thermal sensor 35b is installed as a high-temperature sensor for detecting the heat-collecting temperature in the handling box 5.

[0094] Furthermore, a thermostat 24 is installed for switching the heating and the exhaust of the interior of room. In the hot-water reserving tank 17, a third thermal sensor 25c is installed as a low-temperature sensor that corresponds to the second thermal sensor 25b provided as the high-temperature sensor. Furthermore, a fourth temperature sensor 25d is installed as a room-temperature sensor for the intake of the air during the nighttime in the summer or the like, and also a fifth temperature sensor 25e is installed as a room-temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of the air. For detecting the humidity of the air, the humidity sensor 26 is installed.

[0095] These thermal sensors 25a to 25e and the humidity sensor 26 are connected to the control device 20 connecting to the driving motor and the motor of the fan 7 in the handling box 5, circulation pump 19, solar battery 22, rechargeable battery 23, and so on.

[0096] In the wee hours of the morning, the temperature of the air in the ridge duct 4 is detected as a low one by the thermal sensor 25a because the roof plate 1 is not yet exposed to the sunlight. IN this case, the back-flow damper 6 closes its opening on the side of the lateral duct 4. In addition, the air-flow change damper 8 closes its opening on the side of the exhaust duct 9 to make a communication between the fan 7 and the descending duct 10.

[0097] If the solar battery 22 catches the sunlight, it starts to generate electricity and then the rechargeable battery 23 is recharged through the control device 20. If the rechargeable battery is recharged up, the circuit in the control panel is actuated. The roof plate 1 becomes exposed to the sunlight, and the temperature of the inside of the ridge duct 4 becomes over the predetermined temperature. Then, the back-flow duct is reversed to open its opening on the side of the lateral duct 4. Subsequently, the fan 7 starts its rotation to collect the solar heat. At first, the air is introduced from the ambient air intake 3 of the eaves or the like to the air flow path 2 formed immediately bellow the roof plate. Then, the air is heated by the roof plate 1 which is already heated by the solar radiation and then collected by the lateral duct 4, followed by being introduced into the handling box 5.

[0098] The heated air flows from the handling box 5 to the descending duct 10 in the downward direction. Then, the heated air performs three different actions of directly heating the underside of the floor via the floor panel 12, being accumulated in the dirt-floor concrete 11, being provided as warm air that is directly blown into the interior of the room through a floor air outlet 14. As a result, the room temperature is gradually increased.

[0099] The intake of hot water is performed by pressing a specific button on a remote control operation device 27 to actuate the circulation pump 19. Subsequently, the hot water starts to circulate between the hot-water pumping coil 15 and the hot-water reserving tank through the circulation piping 16. By the way, the actuation of the pump requires the conditions in which the solar battery 22 is exposed to the solar radiation and the temperature difference between the thermal sensor 25b in the handling box 5 and the thermal sensor 25c in the hot-reserving tank 17 is larger than a predetermined level. At the time of starting the intake of hot water during the morning, such a temperature difference is considerably higher than the predetermined level. However, the temperature of the inside of the hot-water reserving tank 17 decreases as the thermal medium repeats its circulation so as to be introduced into the hot-water pumping coil 15. The temperature difference becomes lower than the predetermined level, then the intake of hot water is braked. In addition, if the room temperature detected by the thermostat 24 of the interior of room becomes larger than the predetermined temperature, the air-flow change damper 8 opens its opening on the side of the exhaust duct 9 to throw out of the heated air to the exterior of house. If it becomes lower than the predetermined temperature, the air-flow change damper 8 opens its opening on the side of the descending duct 10 to perform the heating action. In this heating action, the fan 7, the damper motor, and the circulation pump 19 are driven by the supply of electricity from the solar battery 22, providing substantial energy saving. In addition, the control device 20 can be also driven by the supply of electricity from the solar battery 22, so that it also provides substantial energy saving in the same manner.

[0100] During the nighttime, if there is a temperature difference between the thermal sensor 25e detecting the air and the thermal sensor 25f detecting the room temperature and also the thermal sensor 26 detecting the temperature of the air becomes less than the predetermined temperature, the back-flow damper 6 opens its opening on the side of the ridge duct 4 and the air-flow change damper 8 makes a communication between the fan 7 and its opening on the side of descending detecting duct 10.

[0101] Under this condition, the radiational cooling can be performed by rotating the fan 7 in the handling box 5 to introduce the chill of the night from the ambient air intake 3 of the eaves or the like to the air flow path 2 formed immediately bellow the roof plate 1. Then, the chill is collected into the lateral duct 4, followed by flowing downwardly through the descending duct 10. Consequently, the chill is introduced into the air-circulating space 13 between the heat-accumulating dirt-floor concrete 11 and the floor panel 12. It performs the cooling actions of being accumulated in the dirt-floor concrete 11 and being provided as cool wind directly blowing into the interior of room from the air outlet 14 (radiational cooling operation during the nighttime).

[0102] Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 9, an outlet 41 directly communicated with the inside of the room may formed on the position near the lower end of the descending duct 10 as another embodiment of the present invention. By the way, not shown in the figure, the outlet 41 may be reclosable by providing the outlet 41 with an open/close door. Furthermore, as another embodiment shown in FIG. 10, the descending duct 10 may be designed so that there is no opening below the floor panel 12. The orifice 41 may be only formed on the position near the lower end of the descending duct 10 so as to be directly communicated with the inside of the room.

[0103] In the embodiment shown in FIG. 10, the warm wind is directly introduced into the room without passing through the space under the floor, so that it is optimized to warm the desired room in a short time.

[0104] As described above, therefore, the solar system house of the present invention is able to optimize the use of solar energy for heating, cooling, ventilating, and dehumidifying the interior of a room and supplying hot water in addition to the use of wind and other climate conditions by constructing a residence or building that flexibly adapts to the outside environmental conditions; reduce running cost of the system by the use of a solar battery; and allow the operation of the system in response to the quantity of solar radiation.

[0105] The present invention has been described in detail with respect to preferred embodiments, and it will now be obvious to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the invention in its broader aspects, and it is the intention, fall within the true spirit of the invention.

Claims

1. A solar system house, comprising:

a solar-heat collecting portion on a roof; a solar-heat collecting duct communicated with the solar-heat collecting portion; and a handling box connected to the solar-heat collecting portion, wherein

the handling box includes a back-flow damper that prevent a back-flow toward the solar-heat collecting duct, an air-flow change damper that allow selection between a descending duct and an exhaust duct opened to the outside, a solar-heat collecting fan positioned between the back-flow chamber and the air-flow change damper, and a driving motor for rotating the solar-heat collecting fan in the handling box, which is a direct current (DC) motor to be driven by a solar-battery and a rechargeable battery electrically connected to the solar-battery.

2. The solar system house as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the solar-heat collecting portion is constructed of: a roof plate including a steel roof plate, an amorphous silicon solar battery layered on the steel roof plate, and a resin coat applied on the amorphous silicon solar battery; and

an air flow path having a roof pitch formed immediately bellow the roof plate.

3. The solar system house as claimed in claim 1, wherein

an exhausting operation is performed during the daytime, where the air-flow change damper is communicated with the exhaust duct to perform the exhausting operation, and

a radiational cooling is performed during the nighttime, where the air-flow change damper is communicated with the descending duct to introduce air into a room.

4. The solar system house as claimed in claim 1, wherein

driving motors used for activating the back-flow damper and the air-flow change damper are DC motors that are connected to the rechargeable battery as a power supply.

5. The solar system house as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a thermal sensor provided on a solar-heating duct, wherein

the driving motor of the solar-heat collecting fan is turned on/off and the back-flow damper is opened/closed, based on a temperature detected by the thermal sensor.

6. The solar system house as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the solar-heat collecting duct is a ridge duct that is placed inside of a house.

7. The solar system house as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the solar-heat collecting duct is a ridge duct that is placed outside of a house.

8. The solar system house as claimed in claim 1, wherein

a lower end of the descending duct is opened to an under-floor air-circulating space communicating with an interior of a room through an outlet formed on a predetermined location.

9. The solar system house as claimed in claim 8, wherein

an under-floor air-circulating space is a space between a solar-heat accumulating dirt-floor concrete and a floor plate.

10. The solar system house as claimed in claim 1, wherein

a lower end of the descending duct is directly opened to an under-floor air-circulating space.

11. The solar system house as claimed in claim 1, wherein

a lower end of the descending duct is opened to an under-floor air-circulating space and directly opened to an interior of a room.