An integrated system for heating and domestic hot water production for residential buildings

The main purpose of the present work is the estimation of the possible advantages of combined heating plants including solar collectors, air source heat pump and a condensing boiler. The investigation is carried out in collaboration with the manufacturers of the machines, allowing to have precise information about all the components. Investigations are carried out to compare the proposed systems with a standard solution with a condensing boiler only. Three different locations are considered in the present study. Comparison are made regarding primary energy consumption, equivalent CO2 production, percentage of renewable energy and possible economic saving. For this purpose TRNSYS-based approach is adopted. The entire heating plant and the building are modeled together. Each component performance was previously measured in order to tune the mathematical model to be used in TRNSYS. In particular, experimental measurements were performed on a test-plant, allowing to tune a model for the stratification of the real storage tank, and for its dynamic response. The estimation of the dynamic behavior, and thus the heating load of the considered building, is carried out by means of TRNSYS. Domestic Hot Water consumption is calculated as well