Measuring Air Temperature in Glazed Ventilated Facades in the Presence of Direct Solar Radiation

A distinctive element of buildings with a double glazed façade is naturally or mechanically driven flow in a ventilated cavity. Accurate air temperature measurements in the cavity are crucial to evaluate the dynamic performance of the façade, to predict and control its behavior as a significant part of the complete ventilation system. Assessment of necessary cooling/heating loads and of the whole building energy performance will then depend on the accuracy of measured air temperature. The presence of direct solar radiation is an essential element for the façade operation, but it can heavily affect measurements of air temperature and may lead to errors of high magnitude using bare thermocouples and even adopting shielding devices. Two different research groups, from Aalborg University and Politecnico di Torino, tested separately various techniques to shield thermocouples from direct irradiance, in order to achieve an accurate and reliable way to measure the air temperature reducing the error caused by radiation. Experiments include bare thermocouple, naturally and mechanically ventilated shielded thermocouples, mechanically ventilated thermocouple with double shielding, silver coated thermocouples and screens. In both tests mechanically ventilated (single) shielding devices provide better results than naturally ventilated ones. A few of the best performing techniques were compared between two research groups and a comparison shows good agreement of the results.