Editing Trombe wall (section)

{{Short description|Passive solar building}}
A '''Trombe wall''' is a massive equator-facing wall that is painted a dark color in order to absorb thermal energy from incident sunlight and covered with a glass on the outside with an insulating air-gap between the wall and the glaze. A Trombe wall is a [[passive solar building]] design strategy that adopts the concept of indirect-gain, where sunlight first strikes a solar energy collection surface in contact with a thermal mass of air. The sunlight absorbed by the mass is converted to thermal energy (heat) and then transferred into the living space.

Trombe walls may also be referred to as a '''mass wall''',<ref name="Myers1984">{{cite book |last1=Myers |first1=John D. |title=Solar Applications in Industry and Commerce |date=1984 |publisher=Prentice-Hall |location=Englewood Cliffs, NJ |isbn=0-13-822404-8 |pages=70–78}}</ref> '''solar wall''',<ref name="Meltzer1985">{{cite book |last1=Meltzer |first1=Michael |title=Passive and Active Solar Heating Technology |date=1985 |publisher=Prentice-Hall |location=Englewood Cliffs, NJ |isbn=0-13-653114-8|pages=115–138}}</ref> or '''thermal storage wall'''.<ref name="Mazria1979">{{cite book |last1=Mazria |first1=Edward |title=The Passive Solar Energy Book |date=1979 |publisher=Rodale Press |location=Emmaus, PA |isbn=0-87857-260-0 |pages=28–62, 152–179}}</ref> However, due to the extensive work of professor and architect [[Félix Trombe]] in the design of passively heated and cooled solar structure, they are often called Trombe Walls.<ref name="Meltzer1985"/>

This system is similar to the air heater (as a simple glazed box on the south wall with a dark absorber, air space, and two sets of vents at top and bottom) created by professor [[Edward S. Morse]] a hundred years ago.<ref name="McVeigh1983">{{cite book |last1=McVeigh |first1=J. C. |title=Sun Power: An Introduction to the Applications of Solar Energy |date=1983 |publisher=Pergamon Press |location=Oxford, UK |isbn=0-08-026148-5 |pages=117–122 |edition=2nd}}</ref><ref>{{Citation | title = Old Solar: 1881 | url =http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/05/17/335503/-Old-Solar:1881}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Lloyd |first1=Alter |title=The Trombe Wall: Low Tech Solar Design Makes A Comeback |url=https://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/the-trombe-wall-low-tech-solar-design-makes-a-comeback.html}}</ref>