A passive solar heater-refrigerator

Summary  In this paper we study the nonequilibrium thermodynamic steady-state behaviour of a model system representing a core surrounded by an envelope in which the envelope interacts with the solar radiation and with an external bath having a given temperature profile. The heat flow between core and envelope can be controlled by varying the thermal conductivity of their interface. We show that this system acts as a passive heat pump raising the core average temperature with respect to the average equilibrium value corresponding to a fixed value of the interface conductivity, at the same time flattening its oscillation in time. By changing the time dependence of the conductivity the systemvice versa acts as a refrigerator. We show how the limits of this performance depend on the passive parameters such as surfaces, conductivities, heat capacities. The periodicity considered in this study is the daily cycle.