scholarly journals Technical feasibility study of net-zero energy house for Canada - case study of Team North 2009 US DOE Solar Decathlon competition

Author(s):  
Toktam Saeid

In October 2009, Team North competed in the US DOE 2009 Solar Decathlon competition. Team North's mission was to design and deliver North House, an energy efficient solar-powered home while training Canada's next generation of leaders in sustainable design. In North House, the PV system on the roof was the primary energy generation, complimented by a custom PV cladding system on the south, east and west facades. A solar assisted heat pump system, including a three-tank heat transfer and storage system, the horizontally mounted evacuated-tube solar thermal collectors on the roof and a variable capacity heat pump met the hot water and space heating demands. A second variable capacity heat pump was utilized for space cooling. The solar thermal system was studied using TRNSYS simulation. For the initial assessments the simulations were run for Baltimore. Then, the analyses were extended to different cities across Canada. In all scenarios the same house was linked to the system. The minimum annual solar fraction of the different cities was 64% and it rose up to 81%. Finally, the data measured during the competition were analyzed and compared with the data resulting from the simulation. According to competition measures, during the 10 days of competition in Washington DC, the PV system generated 271.6kWh of electricity and the solar thermal system produced 91.7kWh while the house consumption was 294.1kWh. As a result, North House was evidently a net-positive house.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toktam Saeid

In October 2009, Team North competed in the US DOE 2009 Solar Decathlon competition. Team North's mission was to design and deliver North House, an energy efficient solar-powered home while training Canada's next generation of leaders in sustainable design. In North House, the PV system on the roof was the primary energy generation, complimented by a custom PV cladding system on the south, east and west facades. A solar assisted heat pump system, including a three-tank heat transfer and storage system, the horizontally mounted evacuated-tube solar thermal collectors on the roof and a variable capacity heat pump met the hot water and space heating demands. A second variable capacity heat pump was utilized for space cooling. The solar thermal system was studied using TRNSYS simulation. For the initial assessments the simulations were run for Baltimore. Then, the analyses were extended to different cities across Canada. In all scenarios the same house was linked to the system. The minimum annual solar fraction of the different cities was 64% and it rose up to 81%. Finally, the data measured during the competition were analyzed and compared with the data resulting from the simulation. According to competition measures, during the 10 days of competition in Washington DC, the PV system generated 271.6kWh of electricity and the solar thermal system produced 91.7kWh while the house consumption was 294.1kWh. As a result, North House was evidently a net-positive house.


2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Chu ◽  
Wilkie Choi ◽  
Cynthia A. Cruickshank ◽  
Stephen J. Harrison

The combination of solar thermal and heat pump systems as a single solar assisted heat pump (SAHP) system can significantly reduce residential energy consumption in Canada. As a part of Team Ontario's efforts to develop a high performance house for the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon 2013 Competition, an integrated mechanical system (IMS) consisting of a SAHP was investigated. The system was designed to provide domestic hot water (DHW), space-heating, space-cooling, and dehumidification. The system included a cold and a hot thermal storage tanks and a heat pump to move energy from the low temperature reservoir to the hot reservoir. Solar thermal collectors supplied heat to the cold storage and operated at a higher efficiency due to the heat pump reducing the temperature of the collector working fluid. The combination of the heat pump and solar thermal collectors allows more heat to be harvested at a lower temperature, and then boosted to a suitable temperature for domestic use via the heat pump. The IMS and the building's energy loads were modeled using the TRNSYS simulation software. A parametric study was conducted to optimize the control, sizing, and configuration of the system. The simulation results suggested that the investigated system can achieve a free energy ratio (FER) of about 0.583 for the high performance house designed for the Ottawa climate.


Author(s):  
Jenny Chu ◽  
Cynthia A. Cruickshank ◽  
Wilkie Choi ◽  
Stephen J. Harrison

Heat pumps are commonly used for residential space-heating and cooling. The combination of solar thermal and heat pump systems as a single solar-assisted heat pump (SAHP) system can significantly reduce residential energy consumption in Canada. As a part of Team Ontario’s efforts to develop a high performance house for the 2013 DOE Solar Decathlon Competition, an integrated mechanical system (IMS) consisting of a SAHP was investigated. The system is designed to provide domestic hot water, space-heating, space-cooling and dehumidification. The system included a cold and a hot thermal storage tank and a heat pump to move energy from the low temperature reservoir, to the hot. The solar thermal collectors supplies heat to the cold storage and operate at a higher efficiency due to the heat pump reducing the temperature of the collector working fluid. The combination of the heat pump and solar thermal collectors allows more heat to be harvested at a lower temperature, and then boosted to a suitable temperature for domestic use via the heat pump. The IMS and the building’s energy loads were modeled using the TRNSYS simulation software. A parametric study was conducted to optimize the control, sizing and configuration of the system. This paper provides an overview of the model and summarizes the results of the study. The simulation results suggested that the investigated system can achieve a free energy ratio of about 0.583 for a high performance house designed for the Ottawa climate.


HortScience ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 249a-249
Author(s):  
Eric A. Lavoie ◽  
Damien de Halleux ◽  
André Gosselin ◽  
Jean-Claude Dufour

The main objective of this research was to produce a simulated model that permitted the evaluation of operating costs of commercial greenhouse tomato growers with respect to heating methods (hot air, hot water, radiant and heat pumps) and the use of artificial lighting for 1991 and 1992. This research showed that the main factors that negatively influence profitability were energy consumption during cold periods and the price of tomatoes during the summer season. The conventional hot water system consumed less energy than the heat pump system and produced marketable fruit yields similar to those from the heat pump system. The hot water system was generally more profitable in regards to energy consumption and productivity. Moreover, investment costs were less; therefore, this system gives best overall financial savings. As for radiant and hot air systems, their overall financial status falls between that of the hot water system and the heat pump. The radiant system proved to be more energy efficient that the hot air system, but the latter produced a higher marketable fruit yield over the 2-year study.


2011 ◽  
Vol 374-377 ◽  
pp. 398-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Ning Hu ◽  
Ban Jun Peng ◽  
Shan Shan Hu ◽  
Jun Lin

A hot-water and air-conditioning (HWAC) combined ground sourse heat pump(GSHP) system with horizontal ground heat exchanger self-designed and actualized was presented in this paper. The heat transfer performance for the heat exchanger of two different pipe arrangements, three layers and four layers, respectively, was compared. It showed that the heat exchange quantity per pipe length for the pipe arrangement of three layers and four layers are 18.0 W/m and 15.0 W/m. The coefficient of performance (COP) of unit and system could remain 4.8 and 4.2 as GSHP system for heating water, and the COP of heating and cooling combination are up to 8.5 and 7.5, respectively. The power consumption of hot-water in a whole year is 9.0 kwh/t. The economy and feasibility analysis on vertical and horizontal ground heat exchanger were made, which showed that the investment cost per heat exchange quantity of horizontal ground heat exchanger is 51.4% lower than that of the vertical ground heat exchanger, but the occupied area of the former is 7 times larger than the latter's.


Author(s):  
Lanbin Liu ◽  
Lin Fu ◽  
Yi Jiang

Typically there is a great deal of waste heat available in drainage system of large-scale public bathhouses, such as public bathhouses in schools, barracks and natatoriums. The paper advances a heat pump system used in bathhouses for exhaust heat recovery. The system consists of solar energy collection system, drainage collection system and heat pump system for exhaust heat recovery. In the system, tap water is heated by energy from solar energy collection system, and is used as hot water for bathing at the beginning. At the same time, drainage collection system collects sewage from bathhouses, and then electric heat pump starts up and recovers the exhaust heat in sewage and heats the tap water. In this way, heat is recycled. Practical operation of the system was introduced, and drainage temperature as well as equipment capacity was optimized based on a practical example. Compared with gas-fired (oil-fired, coal-fired, electric) boilers, the system has advantages of lower energy consumption, less pollution and lower operating cost. Therefore, the system has great superiority in energy conservation and has a good application prospect.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 3776
Author(s):  
Nguyen Van Duc Long ◽  
Thi Hiep Han ◽  
Dong Young Lee ◽  
Sun Yong Park ◽  
Byeng Bong Hwang ◽  
...  

Distillation for R-410A reclamation from a waste refrigerant is an energy-intensive process. Thus, various heat pump configurations were proposed to enhance the energy efficiency of existing conventional distillation columns for separating R-410A and R-22. One new heat pump configuration combining a vapor compression (VC) heat pump with cold water and hot water cycles was suggested for easy operation and control. Both advantages and disadvantages of each heat pump configuration were also evaluated. The results showed that the mechanical vapor recompression heat pump with top vapor superheating saved up to 29.5%, 100.0%, and 10.5% of the energy required in the condenser duty, reboiler duty, and operating cost, respectively, compared to a classical heat pump system, and 85.2%, 100.0%, and 60.8%, respectively, compared to the existing conventional column. In addition, this work demonstrated that the operating pressure of a VC heat pump could be lower than that of the existing distillation column, allowing for an increase in capacity of up to 20%. In addition, replacing the throttle valve with a hydraulic turbine showed isentropic expansion can decrease the operating cost by up to 20.9% as compared to the new heat pump configuration without a hydraulic turbine. Furthermore, the reduction in carbon dioxide emission was investigated to assess the environmental impact of all proposed sequences.


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