Energy and exergy analyses of space heating in buildings

In the present study, energy and exergy analyses are presented for the whole process of space heating in buildings. This study is based on a pre-design analysis tool, which has been produced during ongoing work for the International Energy Agency (IEA) formed within the Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems Programme (ECBCSP) Annex 37. Throughout this paper, in all of the calculations such as heat losses and gains were taken according to Turkish Standards Institution TSE, which is in accordance with the European Standard TS EN ISO 13789. In the analysis, heating load is taken account but cooling load is neglected and the calculations presented here are done using steady state conditions. The analysis is applied to an office in Izmir with a volume of 720 m³ and a net floor area of 240 m² as an example of application. Indoor and exterior air temperatures are 20 °C and 0 °C, respectively. It is assumed that the office is heated by a liquid natural gas (LNG) fired conventional boiler, an LNG condensing boiler and an external air–air heat pump. With this study, energy and exergy flows are investigated. Energy and exergy losses in the whole system are quantified and illustrated. The highest efficiency values in terms of energy and exergy were found to be 80.9% for external air–air heat pump and 8.69% for LNG condensing boiler, respectively.