Seasonal storage for space heating using solar DHW surplus

Gonçalo J. Brites, Manuel Garruço, Marco S. Fernandes, Diogo M. Sá Pinto and Adélio R. Gaspar

Renewable Energy, 2024, vol. 231, issue C

Abstract: Due to the seasonality of solar energy, achieving 100 % of annual solar fraction for domestic hot water (DHW) production is only possible by greatly oversizing the collector area of a solar system, thus creating a significant energy surplus in summer. This simulation study investigates the possibility of using this surplus to promote space heating during winter, in a moderate South European climate, to try achieving a total solar fraction of 100 %. Priority is given to the DHW reservoir, diverting the excess heat to an additional large-capacity seasonal thermal energy storage (STES) reservoir. The best configuration for the number of collectors and STES tank volume was assessed through a parametric study, to reach a compromise between a high solar fraction and a reasonable system efficiency. The results showed that a system with 10 m2 of solar collectors and a 30 m3 STES tank or, alternatively, 20 m2 of collectors and a 20 m3 tank achieved the desired solar fraction and efficiency for the chosen building and local climate conditions. A comparison with the literature shows that this strategy can achieve better results, requiring less collector area and storage volume.

Keywords: Solar energy; Seasonal thermal energy storage; Sensible heat storage; DHW; Space heating; Contents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148124009571
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:231:y:2024:i:c:s0960148124009571

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2024.120889

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().