Method for reducing excess heat supply experienced in typical Chinese district heating systems by achieving hydraulic balance and improving indoor air temperature control at the building level

Lipeng Zhang, Oddgeir Gudmundsson, Jan Eric Thorsen, Hongwei Li, Xiaopeng Li and Svend Svendsen

Energy, 2016, vol. 107, issue C, 431-442

Abstract: A common problem with Chinese district heating systems is that they supply more heat than the actual heat demand. The reason for this excess heat supply is the general failure to use control devices to adjust the indoor temperature and flow in the building heating systems in accordance with the actual heat demand. This results in 15–30% of the total supplied heat being lost. This paper proposes an integrated approach that aims to reduce the excess heat loss by introducing pre-set thermostatic radiator valves combined with automatic balancing valves. Those devices establish hydraulic balance, and stabilize indoor temperatures. The feasibility and the energy consumption reduction of this approach were verified by means of simulation and a field test. By moving the system from centrally planned heat delivery to demand-driven heat delivery, excess heat loss can be significantly reduced. Results show that once the hydraulic balance is achieved and indoor temperatures are controlled with this integrated approach, 17% heat savings and 42.8% pump electricity savings can be achieved. The energy savings will also have a positive environmental effect with seasonal reductions of 11 kg CO2, 0.1 kg SO2, and 0.03 kg NOx per heating square meter for a typical case in Harbin.

Keywords: District heating; Excess heat supply reduction; Pre-set thermostatic radiator valves; Automatic balancing valves; Hydraulic balance; Differential pressure control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544216303917
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:energy:v:107:y:2016:i:c:p:431-442

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2016.03.138

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

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