Applications of Metaheuristic Algorithms in Solar Air Heater Optimization: A Review of Recent Trends and Future Prospects

Table 1

Important dates in the history of the invention and development of solar air heaters.

S. no.	Decade	Year	Description of the system/invention/research	Researcher/inventor/reporter	References
1.	1870s	1877	The first-ever used solar heat-stored iron.	Daniels et al.	[30]
2.	1880s	1881	The first-ever designed accredited solar air heater. It was an uncomplicated wooden wall-hung cabinet of a black sheet of metal covered with transparent glass.	E Morse	[31, 32]
3.	1920s	—	The phrase “solar house” first appeared in the United States newspapers. The system was described by its large south-facing windows.	A Chicago newspaper	[33]
4.	1930s	1932	The first solar house known as “House of Tomorrow” was built. The system showed the ability to absorb and store heat energy (thermal mass).	Architects G & W Keck	[33]
		1933	The other solar house known as “Crystal House” at the Chicago World Fair was also built. The system showed the ability to absorb and store heat energy (thermal mass).	Architects G & W Keck	[33]
		1938	The inception of modern research into solar heating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This program revealed that the collector performance calculations were developed.	Godfrey L. Cabot	[34]
5.	1940s-1950s	—	The invention of the system used solar collectors to heat air and then pumped it into a granulated rock-filled storage container.	K Miller	[33]
		1946-1949	The exploration of the new ground SAH system application used solid chemical compounds to absorb energy and subsequently release the heat by fusion when transformed from the solid state into the liquid state. This phase change material (PCM) technology has many applications in the industry.	Two residences in Massachusetts	[32, 33]
		—	The improved systems made several innovations to the previous solar collector design to further substantiate their true potentials.	The Americans	[33]
6.	1950s	1955	They developed and evaluated the efficiency of a 100% Arizona desert solar-heated house in the US. In the design, a flow-through air heater matrix and thermal energy storage (TES) system were used. Although the as-built system did not indicate an economic optimum, a smaller system using some other ancillary energy sources resulted in a lower optimum cost.	Bliss	[32, 35]
		1959	The construction of a dwelling near Denver used transparent glass plate collectors and a TES pebble bed design.	Lof	[32, 35]
7.	1960s-1970s	1963, 1964, 1976, 1978	The performance of the above system (a dwelling near Denver, 1959) was significantly studied.	Lof et al.	[32, 35]
		1968	Described how another type of SAH partially heated a laboratory building in Australia. The system was a 56.0 m^2 vee-grooved SAH that incorporated pebble bed storage.	Close et al.	[34]
		1970	Many different types of air heating systems have been experimentally constructed, and the performance of some has been evaluated and reported worldwide.	—	[32]
8.	2000s	2003	Studied the optimization designs of assorted European “solar combisystems.”	Weiss et al.	[36]