Question

Thermal Storage Solar heating of a house is much more efficient if there is a way to store the thermal energy collected during the day to warm the house at night. Suppose one solar-heated home utilizes a concrete slab of area 13 m2 and 29 cm thick.

If the density of concrete is 2400 kg/m3, what is the mass of the slab?

The slab is exposed to sunlight and absorbs energy at a rate of 1.4 ×107J/h for 10 h. If it begins the day at 25 ∘C and has a specific heat of 750 J/(kg⋅K), what is its temperature at sunset?

Model the concrete slab as being surrounded on both sides (contact area 26 m2) with a 1.7-m-thick layer of air in contact with a surface that is 5.0 ∘C cooler than the concrete. At sunset, what is the rate at which the concrete loses thermal energy by conduction through the air layer?

Model the concrete slab as having a surface area of 24 m2 and surrounded by an environment 5.0 ∘C cooler than the concrete. If its emissivity is 0.93, what is the rate at which the concrete loses thermal energy by radiation at sunset?

Answer 1