Thermal Storage Effect Analysis of Floor Heating Systems Using Latent Heat Storage Sheets

Both solar and heat pump heating systems are innovative technologies for sustaining ecological heat generation. They are gaining more and more importance due to the accelerating pace of climate change and the rising cost of limited fossil resources. Against this background, a heating system combining solar thermal collectors, heat pump, stratified thermal storage and water/ice latent heat storage has been investigated. The major advantages of the proposed solar/heat pump heating system are considered to be its flexible application (suitable for new and existing buildings because of acceptable space demand) as well as the improvement of solar fraction (extended solar collector utilisation time, enhanced collector efficiency), i.e. the reduction of electric energy demand for the heat pump. In order to investigate and optimise the heating system, a dynamic system simulation model was developed. On this basis, a fundamental control strategy was derived for the overall coordination of the heating system with particular regard to the performance of the two storage tanks. In a simulation study, a fundamental investigation of the heating system configuration was carried out and optimisation derived for the system control as well as the selection of components and their dimensioning. The influence of different parameters on the system performance was identified, where the collector area and the latent heat storage volume were found to be the predominant parameters for system dimensioning. For a modern one-family house, a solar collector area of 30m2 and a latent heat store volume of 12.5m3 are proposed. In this configuration, the heating system reaches a seasonal performance factor of 4.6, meaning that 78% of the building’s and users’ heat demand are delivered by solar energy. The results show that the solar/heat pump heating system can give an acceptable performance using up-to-date components in a state-of-the-art building.

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Experimental Investigation on a Latent Heat Thermal Storage Unit for Solar Cooling Application

Green ◽

10.1515/green.2011.018 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

Author(s):

L. Chidambaram ◽

A. S. Ramana ◽

G. Kamaraj ◽

R. Velraj

Keyword(s):

Solar Energy ◽

Latent Heat ◽

Solar Collector ◽

Heat Storage ◽

Storage System ◽

Thermal Storage ◽

Environmental Crisis ◽

Storage Unit ◽

Latent Heat Storage ◽

Solar Cooling

AbstractConventional cooling technologies that utilize harmful refrigerants consume more energy and cause peak loads leading to negative environmental impacts. As the world grapples with the energy and environmental crisis, there is an urgent need to develop and promote environmentally benign sustainable cooling technologies. Solar cooling is one such promising technology, given the fact that solar energy is the cheapest and most widely available renewable energy that matches the cooling load requirements. However thermal storage systems are essential to overcome the disadvantage of the intermittent nature of solar energy and variations in the cooling demand. The enhanced utilization of solar energy and other consequences of thermal storage integrated systems have gained the attention of researchers in recent years. The concept of combined sensible and latent heat storage system is successfully introduced in several applications and it has many advantages. This paper presents the performance of the solar collector system and the charging characteristics of a PCM based latent heat thermal storage unit, which is designed to provide continuous supply of heat for the operation of 1 kW vapor absorption refrigeration unit. Investigations on PCM integrated thermal storage system have revealed improvement in heat storage capacity, lower heat loss and an increased solar collector efficiency due to better thermal stratification.

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Experimental and theoretical investigation of latent heat storage for water based solar heating systems

Energy Conversion and Management ◽

10.1016/0196-8904(95)98896-u ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 36 (5) ◽

pp. 315-323 ◽

Cited By ~ 60

Author(s):

Kamil Kaygusuz

Keyword(s):

Latent Heat ◽

Theoretical Investigation ◽

Heat Storage ◽

Solar Heating ◽

Latent Heat Storage ◽

Heating Systems ◽

Water Based

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Numerical and Experimental Analysis of a PCM Thermal Storage System

Volume 6B: Energy ◽

10.1115/imece2014-40395 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Adriano Sciacovelli ◽

Vittorio Verda

Keyword(s):

Latent Heat ◽

Phase Change Materials ◽

Heat Storage ◽

Storage System ◽

District Heating ◽

Thermal Storage ◽

Working Fluid ◽

Latent Heat Storage ◽

Thermal Enhancement ◽

Charging And Discharging Processes

Phase-change materials (PCM) are particularly promising for thermal storage in energy systems where the working fluid is either characterized by small specific heat or small temperature difference. In these cases, sensible heat storage would involve small energy densities (i.e. energy per unit volume). Latent heat storage would allow one to reduce the volume of storage tanks, but also reduce problems related with thermal stratification. On the other hand, heat transfer in PCMs needs to be enhanced in order to complete the charging and discharging processes in reasonable time. This paper reports the numerical and experimental activity performed by the authors related with the design of latent heat storage systems for district heating applications. Among the various enhancement methods, fins present some technical advantages related with manufacturing and management, which make them suitable for the application in district heating systems. The following aspects are considered in this paper: 1) melting and solidification; 2) modeling approaches and validation; 3) thermal enhancement with circular, radial or Y-shaped fins.

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