Search Results (7)

Heat pumps coupled with thermal energy storage (TES) systems are seen as a promising technology for load management that can be used to shift peak loads to off-peak hours. Most of the existing model predictive control (MPC) studies on tariff-based load shifting deploying hot water tanks use simplified tank models. In this study, an MPC framework that accounts for transient thermal behavior (i.e., mixing and stratification) by applying energy (EMPC) and exergy (XMPC) analysis is proposed. A case study for an office building equipped with an air handling unit (AHU) revealed that the MPC strategy had a high load-shifting capacity: over 80% of the energy consumption took place during off-peak hours when there was an electricity surplus in the grid. An analysis of a typical day showed that the XMPC method was able to provide more appropriate stratification within the TES for all load characteristics. An annual exergy analysis demonstrated that, during cold months, energy degradation in the TES is mainly caused by exergy destruction due to irreversibility, while, during the transition to milder months, exergy loss dominates. Compared to the EMPC approach, the XMPC strategy achieves additional reductions of 18% in annual electricity consumption, 13% in operating costs, and almost 17% in emissions. Full article

Stratified tank models are used to simulate thermal storage in applications such as residential or commercial hot-water storage tanks, chilled-water storage tanks, and solar thermal systems. The energy efficiency of these applications relates to the system components and the level of stratification maintained during various flow events in the tank. One-dimensional (1D) models are used in building energy simulations because of the short computation time but often do not include flow-rate dependent mixing. The accuracy of 1D models for plug flow, plug flow with axial conduction, and two convection eddy-diffusivity models were compared with experimental data sets for discharging a 50-gal residential tank and recharging the tank with hot water from an external hot-water source. A minimum and maximum relationship for the eddy diffusivity factor were found at Re <2100 and >10,000 for recirculation of hot water to the top of the tank and vertical tubes inletting cold water at the bottom. The root mean square error decreased from >4 °C to near 2 °C when considering flow-based mixing models during heating, while the exponential decay of the eddy diffusion results in a root mean square error reduction of 1 °C for cone-shaped diffusers that begin to relaminarize flow at the inlet. Full article

Energy recovery from a low temperature heat source using heat pump technology is becoming a popular application. The domestic hot water demand has the characteristic of being very irregular along the day, with periods in which the demand is very intensive and long periods in which it is quite small. In order to use heat pumps for this kind of applications efficiently, the proper sizing and design of the water storage tank is critical. In this work, the optimal sizing of the two possible tank alternatives, closed stratified tank and variable-water-volume tank, is presented, and their respective performance compared, for domestic hot water production based on low temperature energy recovery in two potential applications (grey water and ultra-low temperature district heating). The results show that the efficiency of these kind of systems is very high and that variable-water-volume tanks allow a better use of the energy source, with an 8% higher exergy efficiency and around 3% better seasonal performance factor (SPF), being able to provide similar comfort levels with a smaller system size. Full article

Performance of solar absorption cooling systems (SACS) is the focus of contemporary studies for decreasing the electrical energy consumption of buildings as the conventional cooling system of buildings is the main consumer of electrical energy during the summer season in hot–humid climates. In this study, the performance analysis of SACS by manipulating different flow schemes to the heat transfer fluid between different components of the system was performed. TRNSYS model of SACS in an education building located at the city of Peshawar (34.00 N, 71.54 E), Pakistan to encounter the peak cooling load of 108 kW (during operating hours of the building i.e., 09 a.m. to 05 p.m.) is developed and all possible flow schemes of heat transfer fluid between the system’s components were compared. In Scheme-1 (S-1), a conventional flow pattern is used in which the hot water exiting from the chiller unit flows directly toward the stratified thermal storage unit. In Scheme-2 (S-2), the modified flow pattern of hot water exiting from the chiller unit will divert towards the auxiliary unit, if its temperature exceeds the temperature at the hot side outlet of the tank. Another modified flow pattern is Scheme-3 (S-3) in which the hot water leaving the chiller to keep diverting towards the auxiliary unit unless the outlet temperature from the hotter side of the tank would reach the minimum driving temperature (109 °C) of the chiller’s operation. Simulations in TRNSYS evaluates the SACS’s performance of all the schemes (conventional and modified) for the whole summer season and for each month. In general, S-3 with evacuated tube solar collector results in better primary energy saving with the smallest collector area per kilowatt for achieving 50% primary energy saving for the whole summer season. Full article

Thermal solar systems are interesting solutions to reduce CO ${}_2$ emissions and gradually promote the use of renewable sources. However, sizing such systems and analysing their behavior are still challenging issues, especially for the trade-off between useful solar energy maximization and stagnation risk minimization. The new EPB (Energy Performance of Buildings) standard EN 15316-4-3:2017 offers several methods to evaluate the performance of a forced circulation solar system. One of them is a dynamic hourly method that must be used together with EN 15316-5:2017 for the simulation of the stratified storage tank connected with the solar loop. In this work, such dynamic hourly method is extended to provide more realistic predictions. In particular, modeling of the pump operation due to solar fluid temperature exceeding a set threshold, or due to low temperature differential between solar field and storage tank, is introduced as an on–off control. The implemented code is applied to a case study of solar system for the preparation of domestic hot water and the impact of different design parameters is evaluated. The model predicts a higher risk of overtemperature lock-out or stagnation when the solar field surface is increased, the storage volume is reduced and water consumption is set to zero to simulate summer vacation periods. Finally, a simple modulating control with a time step of a few seconds to a few minutes is introduced, quantitatively showing the resulting benefits in terms of useful solar energy increase, back-up operation savings and reduced auxiliary energy use. Full article

In recent years, CO₂ heat pump water heating systems have been developed, and their performances have been enhanced while their functions have been expanded. In a multi-functional system, used for both hot water supply and bath heating, hot water retrieved from the top of a storage tank is returned to its bottom or side after heat exchange for bath heating, which destroys the stratified temperature distribution in the storage tank and degrades the system performance. In this paper, the performance of a multi-functional CO₂ heat pump water heating system has been evaluated by numerical simulation. A system model was created by combining component models for a CO₂ heat pump, mixing valves, a storage tank, a heat exchanger, and a bathtub. Partly, perfect mixing by hot water return was assumed in the component model for the storage tank, and its validity was verified through experiments. A performance analysis has been conducted under daily repeated hot water and bath heating demands, and the system performance was evaluated at a periodically steady state. As a result, the system efficiency and the volume of unused hot water in the multi-functional system decreased by 4.9% and 16.3%, respectively, as compared to those in the uni-functional system, when hot water returned to the bottom of the storage tank. When the position for hot water return is heightened, the system efficiency becomes higher than that in the uni-functional system, while the volume of unused hot water decreases furthermore. Full article

In this paper a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system for cogeneration of heat and power integrated with a stratified heat storage tank is studied. The use of a storage tank with thermal stratification allows one to increase the annual operating hours of CHP: heat can be produced when the request is low (for instance during the night), taking advantage of thermal stratification to increases the heat recovery performance. A model of the SOFC system is presented to estimate the energy required to meet the average electric energy demand of the residence. Two fuels are considered, namely syngas produced by gasification and natural gas. The tank model considers the temperature gradients over the tank height. The results of the numerical simulation are used to size the SOFC system and storage heat tank to provide energy for a small household using two different fuels. In particular it was shown that in the case of syngas, due to larger system heat output, a larger tank volume was required in order to accumulate unused heat over the night. The detailed description of the tank model will be useful to energy system modelers when sizing hot water tanks. Problem formulation is reported also using a Matlab script. Full article