The ventilation performance of a solar-powered attic fan in Malaysian climate / Wan Mohd Khairi Wan Yahya

Heat and moisture are claimed to be every attic's worst enemy. While many homes have small passive vents, most are ineffective in moving enough air to expel heat and moisture. A passive strategy such as a solar powered attic fan is claimed to be one of the ways that is able to solve the problem. The "run by the sun" system consists of lightweight fan blades which functions as air extractor and powered by PY panels A study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of a ventilation system called Solar Star Roof Mount Vent, in providing thermal comfort to the interior space of a building. This solar-powered attic fan basically consists of lightweight fan blades powered by PY panels. This system is widely used in temperate climate countries to improve interior environments during daytime in the summer, as it is purely solar radiation dependent. The ventilator functions as a heat extractor, extracting out warm air trapped near the ceiling, and inducing fresh air in through openings in the attic. However no scientific measurement has been made to quantify the effectiveness of the system in providing indoor thermal comfort especially in tropical countries. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the performance of the system under Malaysian real sky conditions. The air temperature, relative humidity and air movement inside a room in which the ventilation system has been installed were monitored continuously over a certain period of time. Comparisons on the values of the temperature and the airspeed inside the occupied space were then made for cases with and without the ventilation system, giving an analysis of the overall performance and effectiveness of the system for hot and humid climates. The whole experiments were conducted in a test room under real-time dynamic climatic conditions at Block G, UiTM Shah Alam.