Performance analysis of a solar air heating system with latent heat storage in a lightweight building

•Design, experimental validation and performance study of a solar air heating system with LHTES is presented.•System performance is evaluated with a coupled system numerical model and a building's thermal response model.•Solar system is optimized regarding to two indicators: the solar heating fraction and the utilizability of solar heat.•With the proposed system, solar heating fraction of 63% can be achieved in a case study lightweight building.•LHTES with PCM mass of 25 kg/m2 of the building's floor area is required for solar heating fraction >60%. In energy-efficient, lightweight buildings, a high solar heating fraction can only be achieved if the solar system contains adequate heat storage. In this paper, the design and thermal response modeling of a solar air heating system, which consists of an air vacuum tube solar collector and latent heat storage, is presented. For the system performance analysis, an experimentally validated numerical model of the solar air heating system was coupled with a building thermal response model. A solar heating fraction and the utilizability of solar heat were used as the main performance indicators. The analysis showed that a solar heating fraction of 63% can be achieved in an energy efficient, lightweight building.