STUDY OF A GREEN ROOF BUILDING AIR-CONDITIONING SYSTEM WITH THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE UNITS USING LIGHT WEIGHT SOIL - PERFORMANCES OF THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE UNITS

The heat island or urban warming effect by the consumption of energy in a megalopolis would make better recognizing the importance of planting such as rooftop garden and efficient use of energy such as high efficiency building air-conditioning system. Accordingly, the author proposed a green roof building air-conditioning system using light weight soil as heat storage materials. The author have designed and developed a prototype test unit of rooftop garden as a thermal energy storage unit. The heat transfer characteristics of this unit have been evaluated. As a result, the heat transfer characteristics of the test unit have been clarified with respect to design factors such as apparent thermal diffusivity. Experiment was performed in which heat energy stored in the unit is recovered, revealing thermal storage properties of this unit. These results demonstrate that the green roof building air-conditioning system is one of the promising candidates as a new building air-conditioning system.