Experimental study of two insulated solar greenhouses one of them use a solar air heater with latent heat

The use of solar energy for greenhouse heating in cold period for Mediterranean climate is an important issue. In this paper, the thermal performance of a new solar air heater collector using a packed bed of spherical capsules with a latent heat storage system in east-west oriented greenhouse is analyzed and discussed. An experimental comparative study was conducted in two greenhouses installed in the Research and Technologies Centre of Energy (CRTEn) in Tunisia. The greenhouse heat balance has used to investigate the impact of the phase change material (PCM) on greenhouse temperature. Results show the nighttime recovered heat of this system attained 30% of the total requirements of heating.