Numerical assessment of self-sufficiency of residential buildings in Belgium by using heat pumps, photovoltaic panels and energy storages

Pressing targets set by the policymakers of the European Union require serious changes in the current resulting trends of energy use indicators. To increase the use of renewable energy sources and to improve the efficiency of installed equipment remain the main goals of each new energy saving policy. Residential buildings claim a significant share of the total energy use worldwide. In order to have a more realistic energy performance predictions, increased attention is paid to the analysis of the building’s energy use through comprehensive, transient detailed numerical simulations. In particular, part-load operation, optimal controlling principles and integration of renewable energy resources are being investigated. In this article, self-consumption and self-sufficiency of three detached residential buildings are assessed through numerical models made in programming language Modelica and software tool Dymola. The three buildings have the same structure and different space heating energy demand of 15kWh/m2year, 30 kWh/m2year and 45 kWh/m2year. The energy use of the buildings coincides with the occupancy profile of a family with four members with the dominating domestic hot water use over the space heating demand. The heating system is consistent out of the low-temperature underfloor heating system and the domestic hot water production are provided by an air to water heat pump. The discrepancy between the renewable energy production and the energy consumption is mitigated by means of thermal load shifting and electrical energy storage. The research aims to analyse the potential range of self-consumption and self-sufficiency for the studied buildings as a function of economically favourable energy storage sizing. For the use of an electrical battery with the installed capacity of 2.5kWh and thermal energy storage of 250l, the self-sufficiency results to be 40%, 38.5% and 37% for the space heating energy demand of 15kWh/m2year, 30 kWh/m2year and 45 kWh/m2year respectively for the specific energy demand conditions.

Jaar van publicatie:2021

Toegankelijkheid:Open