An Analysis of Solar Thermal Technologies Integrated into a Canadian Office Building

AbstractThis paper presents an analysis of three innovative solar heating and cooling systems integrated into a typical high performance office building in Montreal, Québec, Canada. A base case energy model of the office is first created in TRNSYS and used to determine the building thermal loads and the end use energy use distribution. This model then serves as the base for the analysis of several reference cases and innovative solar systems, including solar driven absorption chiller and heat pump designs. Results highlight the importance of operating the solar system in both heating and cooling modes. A combination of a GSHP with a solar driven chiller and direct solar heating was found to achieve the highest primary energy savings, with a 76% reduction relative to a standard reference system. The highest solar fractions were obtained for a solar driven absorption heat pump, with the system achieving an annual solar fraction of 0.31 while meeting nearly the entire heating load and a significant portion of the cooling load of a typical building floor through solar energy. It was concluded that the most practical application of solar energy for this building type and climate involved using solar energy to supplement a highly efficient base mechanical system such as a heat pump. Future work will examine additional climate regions and control strategies for system operations