Article
Energy & Fuels
Nicola Franzoi, Alessandro Prada, Sara Verones, Paolo Baggio
Summary: The European Union has enacted directives to legally recognize and regulate citizen energy communities in line with decarbonization objectives. A study assessing the benefits of these communities on reducing carbon footprints in buildings through simulations of average Italian buildings of various sizes equipped with renewable energy systems revealed an increase in self-consumption and a decrease in energy consumption, with potential for further improvement when combined with other strategies such as demand-side management and rule-based control.
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Aldo Canova, Paolo Lazzeroni, Gianmarco Lorenti, Francesco Moraglio, Adamo Porcelli, Maurizio Repetto
Summary: This paper evaluates the energy, economic, and environmental impact of a RES-based energy community formed by end-users located in the same residential building in Italy. The results show that this scheme is economically profitable for Italian residential users and has the potential for significant carbon emissions reduction.
SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SOCIETY
(2022)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Dean Holland Clift, Harry Suehrcke
Summary: This paper investigates the utilization of excess PV electricity for water heating, showing that with advanced control, significant savings in purchased grid electricity consumption can be achieved for electric storage water heaters. Advanced controls are critical for effective use of local intermittent PV power.
Article
Thermodynamics
Jacopo Vivian, Lorenzo Croci, Angelo Zarrella
Summary: This paper presents a laboratory for testing efficient management strategies in all-electric houses and develops a model predictive control strategy to minimize economic costs for space heating. The results show that using the predictive controller in the HVAC system substantially increases PV self-consumption but may compromise thermal comfort.
APPLIED THERMAL ENGINEERING
(2022)
Article
Thermodynamics
Alejandro Pena-Bello, Philipp Schuetz, Matthias Berger, Jorg Worlitschek, Martin K. Patel, David Parra
Summary: The study found that using heat storage can reduce the cost of meeting electricity demand, especially when heat pumps are used for both space heating and domestic hot water. Both battery and hot water tank storage technologies achieved similar rates of total self-consumption, but batteries were more effective in reducing peak demand. The quality of the building's thermal envelope plays a key role in system performance, and policy makers should promote thermal retrofitting of the building stock to avoid grid upgrades.
ENERGY CONVERSION AND MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Thermodynamics
Zhihang Zheng, Jin Zhou, Feng Xu, Rongpeng Zhang, Guang Deng
Summary: This study investigates the performance and feasibility of a PV-assisted ground source heat pump and air source heat pump system in hot summer and cold winter regions of China. The results show that the PVGSHP-ASHP system can effectively address load imbalance issues and achieve higher system efficiency, while also reducing costs.
ENERGY CONVERSION AND MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Thermodynamics
Zheng Wang, Mark B. Luther, Peter Horan, Jane Matthews, Chunlu Liu
Summary: This paper presents an approach to improve the self-consumption and self-sufficiency of solar PV systems by using a polyvalent heat pump, water storage tanks, and batteries. The analysis of thermal loads and electricity consumption data shows that the proposed system can increase PV self-consumption to 41.96% and self-sufficiency to 86.34%, resulting in a reduction of about 74% in imported energy.
BUILDING SIMULATION
(2023)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Mikel Arenas-Larranaga, Maider Santos-Mugica, Laura Alonso-Ojanguren, Koldobika Martin-Escudero
Summary: In this paper, a parametric analysis of the integration of photovoltaic panels and heat pumps in domestic environments is conducted using a rule-based control concept. The results show that actively modulating the heat pump compressor can improve self-consumption by an average of 13% and reduce costs by 2.5%. However, the heat from the heat pump and the power consumed increase by 3.7% and 5.2%, respectively. A linear equation to estimate the performance of the controller is proposed.
Article
Energy & Fuels
Sahban W. Alnaser, Sereen Z. Althaher, Chao Long, Yue Zhou, Jianzhong Wu, Reem Hamdan
Summary: Transitioning towards low-carbon energy systems requires increasing residential Photovoltaic (PV) contribution through PV self-consumption, which can be supported by adopting PV self-consumption policies and incorporating batteries. However, it is crucial to assess and mitigate the technical impacts of PV policies on distribution networks. Implementing a two-stage planning framework that optimizes PV and battery sizes, and evaluates impacts on distribution networks through Monte-Carlo simulations, is essential for achieving sustainable energy goals.
Article
Energy & Fuels
Alex Wray, Kambiz Ebrahimi
Summary: The vehicle thermal management system is a limiting factor for electric vehicle range and battery life. Tesla's waste heat recovery (WHR) thermal management system, the 'Octovalve', significantly reduces energy consumption and battery load during warm-up, but at the cost of overall warm-up time.
Article
Thermodynamics
Xiaoya Jia, Guoyuan Ma, Feng Zhou, Shuailing Liu, Guoqiang Wu, Qiuyu Sui
Summary: The novel dual-cylinder rotary compressor used in the PEAHP system in cold zone areas of China has shown to significantly improve heating/cooling capacities and COP values by increasing return air volume flow rate. The system demonstrates great applicability for ultra-low energy buildings in winter, with substantial enhancements in performance compared to traditional systems.
APPLIED THERMAL ENGINEERING
(2022)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Jere Knuutinen, Herman Book, Vesa Ruuskanen, Antti Kosonen, Paula Immonen, Jero Ahola
Summary: This paper examines four different control methods for DHW heating in a building with a GSHP and a PV system. The main control method aims to minimize DHW heating costs by utilizing market information and PV production output forecast, showing significant cost savings even with forecasting errors.
Article
Thermodynamics
Francesco Nicoletti, Mario Antonio Cucumo, Natale Arcuri
Summary: This study investigates the combination of heat pumps with photovoltaic systems and batteries for sustainable heating/cooling. Through energy simulations and parametric analysis, an optimal solution is obtained, and it is found that the size of the PV plant is independent of solar source availability, but strongly depends on building thermal demands.
ENERGY CONVERSION AND MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Yifan Jiang, Xinsheng Li, Jian Yao, Xin Wan, Jingxin Zhang, Yanjun Dai
Summary: In this study, a distributed aerobic composting system assisted by a solar photovoltaic thermal heat pump was proposed and simulated. The effects of ambient temperatures, wind speeds, and solar radiation intensities on the performance of the hybrid system were investigated. The results showed that the system could satisfy the compost maturity standard under certain temperature conditions. Additionally, the ambient temperature and solar radiation intensity had an impact on the system performance, while wind speed had a minor effect.
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Georgios Dermentzis, Fabian Ochs, Nicola Franzoi
Summary: The study monitored two multi-family houses in Innsbruck aiming to be net-zero energy buildings for four years. It found that the PV electricity production was higher than the heat pump consumption, and solar thermal collectors were more effective at producing heat per unit area. However, the combination of technologies and system complexities may have negative impacts, emphasizing the importance of careful decision-making in reaching net-zero energy buildings.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2021)
