This research work aims to assess the performance of an innovative exhaust air energy recovery system
consisting of a building integrated photovoltaic/thermal (BIPV/T) and a thermal wheel (TW). This BIPV/TTW
system has two main operating modes, namely winter and summer. The exhaust air is used for preheating
and pre-cooling the ambient fresh air through a TW in the winter and summer modes of
operation, respectively. Besides, the pre-heated fresh air (in the winter mode) and the heated exhaust air
(in the summer mode) is used for reducing the temperature of PV panels and consequently improving
their electrical efficiency. The electrical and thermal performance of the system is calculated and
compared with those of the conventional BIPV/T and TW systems. Besides, a performance evaluation
criterion (PEC) is defined in this study to investigate the overall performance of the studied systems. The
results shows that the BIPV/T-TW system has higher PEC than the BIPV/T and TW systems. Furthermore,
the effect of various important parameters on the yearly average PEC of the BIPV/T-TW system is
analyzed. The economic assessment of BIPV/T-TW represents that the return time of investment according
to simple payback (SP) and net present value (NPV) is a reasonable value.