Experimental Study of the Thermal Behavior of a Watercress Planted Roofed Cubic Cell to be Watered with Domestic Wastewater

Abstract

One of the virtues of watercress is its ability to grow in wastewater. This work aims at experimentally studying the thermal behavior of a watercress planted roofed cubic cell. To do this, the temperatures of various components of the cell and the solar radiation received by this cell were measured in order to compare the watercress roof performance with that of the conventional concrete roof. Then, the influence of the opening applied on the door of the studied cell was analyzed. As results, the fluctuation amplitude of the indoor ambient temperature of the concrete roofed cell is wider than that of the green roofed cell. Moreover, the last opening applied to the facades of the cell was the optimum area that the ambient temperature indoor was more attenuated. The LAI’s crop was worth 1.2. In addition, the low value of the canopy apparent thermal conductivity revealed that this layer plays a role of thermal insulation. The rooftop greening allows energy savings of about 85% compared to the consumed energy with conventional roofing. An extension of this work could be the energy performance analysis of a system using renewable energy for pumping domestic wastewater produced in or around green roofed housing.