Experimental characterization of a solar combisystem with seasonal storage for a single detached house

A solar combisystem with seasonal thermal energy storage has been designed and installed at the Urbandale Centre for Home Energy Research in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The system features a 28 m2 evacuated tube solar array, 1350 litres of diurnal heat storage tanks, and a 37 m3 buried water tank for seasonal heat storage. The single-detached research house is warmed through radiant floors supplied by either the diurnal or seasonal storage tanks, and domestic hot water is supplied with the diurnal tanks. This research aims to determine the performance of such a system over a full-scale one-year experiment, with the goal of demonstrating a high solar fraction. Preliminary results show that heat losses from the seasonal store exceed those expected from design values. Future experiments are identified