Improving heat recovery using retrofitted heat pump in air handling unit with energy wheel

The world is facing a challenge to reduce energy use to meet the environmental goals set for the future. One factor that has a great impact on the energy performance of buildings is the ventilation losses. To handle these losses, heat recovery systems with rotating heat exchanger are often implemented. These systems have been shown to recover about 60–70% of the energy in the exhaust air on an annual basis.After a heat recovery system is installed it is hard to improve the efficiency of the installed recovery system with an acceptable economic payback period. In the present paper one way to improve the energy performance of a building with this type of heat recovery system by the use of a heat pump is investigated by simulations in TrnSys.The heat pump system is arranged so that the evaporator is connected to a heat exchanger mounted in the exhaust airstream after the energy wheel, and the condenser of the heat pump is mounted so that the temperature of return water from the heating coil is increased.The simulations show that there is a possibility to increase the heat recovery rate of the air handling unit in a significant way by retrofitting a heat pump to the system.     

Energy savings in indoor swimming-pools: comparison between different heat-recovery systems

In indoor swimming-pool facilities, the energy demand is large due to ventilation losses with the exhaust air. Since water is evaporated from the pool surface, the exhaust air has a high water content and specific enthalpy. Because of the low temperature, the heat from the evaporation is difficult to recover. In this paper, the energy demand for the conventional ventilation technique in indoor swimming pools is compared to two different heat-recovery techniques, the mechanical heat pump and the open absorption system. The mechanical heat-pump is the most widely used technique in Sweden today. The open absorption system is a new technique in this application. Calculations have been carried out on an hourly basis for the different techniques. Measurements from an absorption system pilot-plant installed in an indoor swimming pool in the northern part of Sweden have been used in the calculations. The results show that with the mechanical heat pump, the electrical input increases by 63 MWh/year and with the open absorption system 57 MWh/year. However, a mechanical heat-pump and an open absorption system decrease, the annual energy demand from 611 to 528 and 484 MWh respectively, which correspond to decreases of approximately 14 and 20% respectively. The electricity input will increase when using heat-recovery techniques. Changing the climate in the facility has also been investigated. An increased temperature decreases the energy demand when using the conventional ventilation technique. However, when either the mechanical heat-pump or the open absorption system is used, the energy demand is increased when the temperature is increased. Therefore increasing the temperature in the facility when using the conventional technique should be considered the first measure to reduce the energy demand.     

Energy analysis of a low‐temperature heat pump heating system in a single‐family house

Energy costs and environmental concerns have made energy optimisation a viable option for buildings. Energy‐efficient heating systems together with an effective use of buildings thermal mass and tightness have a significant impact on the energy requirement and on the possibility for sizeable running cost savings. In this study we use the simulation tool TRNSYS‐EES to model and analyse the performance of a residential house and the low‐temperature heating system that serves its thermal needs. The building is a single‐family house with controlled ventilation and the chosen heating system is a hydronic floor heating system connected to an exhaust air heat pump. The aim of the simulation is to study the performance of the building, the heating system and the controls in an integrated manner. Overall, the results indicate that the energy efficiency issue implicates system design and system thinking concerns as well as techno‐economic difficulties. The controls and the choice of the operation mode are of a great importance. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Towards the EU emissions targets of 2050: optimal energy renovation measures of Finnish apartment buildings

Member countries of the European Union have released targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80% by the year 2050. Energy use in buildings is a major source of these emissions, which is why this study focused on the cost-optimal renovation of Finnish apartment buildings. Apartment buildings from four different construction years (pre-1976, 1976–2002, 2003–2009 and post-2010) were modelled, using three different heating systems: district heating, ground-source heat pump and exhaust air heat pump. Multi-objective optimisation was utilised to find the most cost-effective energy renovation measures. Most cost-effective renovation measures were ground-source heat pumps, demand-based ventilation and solar electricity. Additional thermal insulation of walls was usually too expensive. By performing only the cost-effective renovations, the emissions could be reduced by 80%, 82%, 69% and 68%, from the oldest to the newest buildings, respectively. This could be done with the initial investment cost of 296, 235, 115 and 104?€/m², respectively.     

Arrangement plan for distributed fuel cells installed in urban areas

The independent fuel cell micro‐grid that accommodates power and heat independently without connecting with other power systems is expected to back up power supply in an emergency, and at peak cuts of a power plant, and the effective use of exhaust heat is anticipated. Therefore, this paper analyses the cost minimization problem of the arrangement planning of a fuel cell system, and the feeding order of exhaust heat. An analysis programme for operation plan at the time of connecting a distributed fuel cell with an energy network was developed using a genetic algorithm. The fuel cell energy network was optimized in six buildings to minimize operation costs, facility costs, and the installation costs of the facilities. As a result, the analysis method for the arrangement plan for the capacity of each installed fuel cell, boiler, heat storage tank, and hot‐water circulating pump was clarified. If the hot‐water network of the distributed fuel cell is installed, in the winter of a cold district, facility cost is disadvantageous compared with the conventional method. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The energy saving obtainable with solar heating and heat pumps in a northern climate

The energy saving obtainable with active solar heating and heat pumps has been studied for several years in the Northern climate of Finland. The studies deal mainly with small houses. A computer program is developed which calculates hour by hour the annual energy balance of different heating systems. The performance, of the heating systems are also measured in inhabited houses. The calculations show that the useful solar energy obtainable from the collector is 50–400 kWh/m² annually depending on the system and the collector size. A heat pump in the system is very advantageous, because it keeps the heat losses low and the collector efficiency high. It approximately doubles the energy obtainable. The measurement results have not been as good as expected. The solar energy obtained from the collector has been 120–160 kWh/m² annually. The main reasons for the low solar energy are design and equipment faults and the shading effects. The best energy saving device is the earth heat pump. It is also therefore very advantageous that the peak power demand decreases markedly. When the area of the earth pipes is large enough, energy may be extracted from earth through the whole year. The annual coefficient of performance is 2–3. Also a heat pump which extracts heat from exhaust air in dwelling houses has been very promising.     

中央回风井乏风利用

三元煤矿目前矿工业广场建筑已安装多联机形式的中央空调系统,经过反复调研论证,公司决定利用热泵技术回收矿井回风低温热能,解决全年洗浴热水热源,从而实现彻底取消传统锅炉,实现节能减排的目的。     

Passive cooling in a low-energy office building

In office buildings, the use of passive cooling techniques combined with a reduced cooling load may result in a good thermal summer comfort and therefore save cooling energy consumption. This is shown in the low-energy office building ‘SD Worx’ in Kortrijk (Belgium), in which natural night ventilation and an earth-to-air heat exchanger are applied. In winter, the supply air is successively heated by the earth-to-air heat exchanger and the regenerative heat exchanger, which recovers the heat from the exhaust air. In summer, the earth-to-air heat exchanger cools the ventilation air by day. In addition, natural night ventilation cools down the exposed structure which has accumulated the heat of the previous day. In this article the overall thermal comfort in the office building is evaluated by means of measuring and simulation results. Measurements of summer 2002 are discussed and compared to simulations with a coupled thermal and ventilation simulation model TRNSYS-COMIS. The simulations are used to estimate the relative importance of the different techniques. The evaluation shows that passive cooling has an important impact on the thermal summer comfort in the building. Furthermore, natural night ventilation appears to be much more effective than an earth-to-air heat exchanger to improve comfort.     

Applicability of air-to-air heat recovery ventilators in China

In the past two decades, increased urbanization and industrialization have caused a tremendous rise of the energy consumption of buildings in China, and a corresponding need is to save this energy. Energy recovery ventilation systems can save substantial amounts of HVAC energy by recovering otherwise wasted energy from the exhaust air to precondition intake air. In China, the minimum global heat recovery efficiency is prescribed by a national design standard, i.e., GB50189-2005, for the heat recovery equipment in public buildings. Because of the local climate differences between southern and northern regions in China, the fractions of sensible and latent heat in per unitary flow rate of fresh air are different from each other in the regions, so is the global effectiveness of a heat recovery system. Considering four different climate zones in China, the annual composition of energy consumption of fresh air for per unitary flow rate is evaluated by employing the testing data of climatic parameters in the eight selected cities. An investigation on the choice of heat exchangers for the energy savings in buildings with little moisture emissions is carried out, and the analysis gives the applicability of air-to-air heat exchangers in China for different operations in order to copy with the prescribed by the standard.     

Regenerative rotary heat exchanger for heat recovery in residential ventilation

Increased energy costs have brought about increased concern by building owners as well as governments about the operating costs and energy budgets for buildings and power plants. This growing energy conservation consciousness has brought a considerable interest in reclaiming waste heat from residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional ventilation systems. Based on theoretical considerations, the design and performance of a small rotary heat exchanger for residential houses is discussed in this paper. Laboratory results reveal a high sensible heat recovery maximum effectiveness of 85 percent with acceptable levels of pressure drop and cross leakage. Cost saving analysis indicates annual energy savings up to 15 percent, with even larger savings in the size of the heating and cooling equipment up to 42 percent. As expected the greatest savings could occur when large amounts of outside air are required for ventilation.     

Numerical study of a hybrid ventilation system for single family houses

The main objective of this study is to develop and test hybrid ventilation systems and control strategies that are suitable for residential buildings. Two ventilation systems were modelled: a mechanical extract ventilation system (called the reference system) and a hybrid low pressure ventilation system that can support two different types of demand control strategies (occupancy detection and CO₂ concentration). The newly developed models were assembled with the existing thermal models of the SIMBAD Building and HVAC Toolbox developed by the CSTB.A single family house located in Athens (Greece), Nice (France), Trappes (France) and finally Stockholm (Sweden) was considered as the case study. Yearly simulations were performed to assess the performance of the hybrid ventilation control strategies. The assessment criteria used are related to indoor air quality, thermal comfort, energy consumption and stability of control strategies. The results show that the low pressure ventilation system can improve the indoor air quality and reduce the fan energy consumption compared to the reference system while maintaining the same building energy consumption for heating.     

Analysis of exergy demand for air heating of an air handling unit

In modern buildings, an increasing amount of the consumed energy falls on ventilation systems. The amount of energy needed for ventilation depends on weather fluctuations, wind, interaction between natural gravity and air tightness of the building, heat exchangers used in ventilation systems, efficiency of other ventilation equipment, and operating mode of ventilation systems in the building. Ventilation systems are comprised of a variety of elements that facilitate processes using energy of different types. The main elements that use energy in ventilation systems are fans, heat exchangers, and heaters. They have a significant effect on both energy needs of a public building and the exergy efficiency of a system. In order to achieve a more efficient use of exergy in heat exchangers, it is recommended to execute processes under as little temperature difference as possible; however, this increases the area of heat exchangers. Results of the analysis show that it is recommended to design ventilation systems based on the temperature that corresponds with the maximum demand of exergy in order to use the heat recovery unit as much as possible in the system.     

建筑节能新方向:太阳能光伏-地源热泵系统

减少我国冬季采暖所造成的大气污染,降低供暖系统的能耗,节约能源一直是建筑节能追求的目标.目前太阳能光伏发电已经成为人类利用太阳能的最主要方式之一,地源热泵已被作为一项旨在解决建筑冷热源问题的新技术,日渐受到人们的重视.将光伏转换与热泵循环有机结合在一起,从而形成了太阳能光伏-地源热泵系统.该系统提高了光电转换和光热吸收效率,光电/光热综合利用,极大地提高了单位面积太阳辐照的利用效率,同时可提高热泵系统在寒冷地区运行的适用性;利用光电效应把太阳能中高能带区域的光能直接转化成电能,可大大提高太阳能的可用能效率;在增加能量储存装置和逆变器的条件下,可以使系统脱离公用电网运行,从而增加了系统的适用性和灵活性;与普通的空气源热泵相比,太阳能地源热泵具有较高的热性能,具有一机多用的功效;与建筑物相结合的太阳能热泵系统,可以增加建筑物的隔热效果,起到减少建筑物冷暖负荷的作用,同时可极大地减少环境污染.     

Cost-optimal energy performance measures in a new daycare building in cold climate

New municipal service buildings must be energy effective, and cost-optimality is one of the criteria for selecting the suitable energy performance improvement measures. A daycare building in a cold climate was studied by means of simulation-based, multi-objective optimisation. Using a genetic algorithm, both target energy use and life-cycle cost of the selected measures were minimised. It was found that extensive insulation of the building envelope is not a cost-optimal method to reduce the daycare building energy use. Improving energy efficiency of the ventilation system, utilising solar energy on-site and employing a light control strategy are preferable ways of improving the building energy performance. Ground-source heat pump is a more cost-optimal heating system for the daycare building than district heating. The cost-optimal sizing of the heat pump is small, only 28% of the required maximum heating power.

Abbreviations: AHU: air handling unit; CAV: constant air volume; COMBI: comprehensive development of nearly zero-energy municipal service buildings; COP: coefficient of performance; DH: district heating; DHW: domestic hot water; EPBD: energy performance of buildings directive; EU: European Union; FINVAC: Finnish Association of HVAC Societies; GSHP: ground-source heat pump; HRU: heat recovery unit; IDA ICE: IDA Indoor Climate and Energy; LED: light-emitting diode; MOBO: multi-objective building optimisation tool; NSGA-II: Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II; nZEB: nearly zero-energy building; PV: photovoltaic; TRY: test reference year; VAV: variable air volume; ZEB: zero-energy building     

A natural ventilation wind tower with heat pipe heat recovery for cold climates

Commercial wind towers are passive ventilation technology based on traditional wind towers of the Middle East. Typical operation of wind towers in cold – mild climates is generally limited to summer-seasons as the outdoor air is too cold to be introduced into spaces for the majority of the year. In addition, the use of natural ventilation solutions has been seen to increase heat loss in buildings and lead to increased energy cost. Wind towers are normally shut down for the sake of avoiding indoor heating energy losses during winter months. Consequently, the concentration of pollutants has seen to rise above the guideline levels, which can lead to ill health. To improve the year-round capabilities of wind towers, a heat recovery system utilising the combination of heat pipes and heat sink was incorporated into a multi-directional wind tower. This study investigates the potential of this concept through the use of numerical analysis and wind tunnel experiments for validation. The findings showed that the wind tower with heat pipes was capable of meeting the required ventilation rates above an inlet air velocity of 1 m/s. In addition to sufficient ventilation, the integration of heat pipes had a positive effect on thermal performance of the wind tower; it raised the supply air by up to 4.5 K. The technology presented here is subject to a patent application (PCT/GB2014/052263).     

Evaluation of estimation method of ground properties for the ground source heat pump system

Technology directed at geothermal energy, one of our renewable energy sources, to heat and air-condition buildings has become very attractive in recent years following the significant developments in ground-source heat pump (GSHP) systems. In general, although the energy efficiency of GSHP systems is far superior to conventional air-source heat pump (ASHP) systems, GSHP system is still expensive. Therefore, GSHP system employs the foundation pile of buildings as heat exchanger is introduced in order to reduce the initial cost. When designing a GSHP system (especially in case of the energy pile system), it is necessary to accurately predict the heat extraction and injection rates of the heat exchanger. The thermal and hydraulic properties of the ground are very important to accurately predict heat transfer between the ground heat exchanger and the ground. In particular, those are the most important design parameters because energy pile system is installed only a few tens of meters deep. In this paper, an estimation method is suggested in order to determine the thermal and hydraulic properties of the ground for design the heat exchanger of energy pile system base on geotechnical investigation for the design the building's foundations. The use of results from generally applied geotechnical site investigation methods to estimate ground thermal and hydraulic properties was evaluated.     

Performance of a novel mechanical ventilation heat recovery heat pump system

The ventilation, heating and cooling of a building can be provided by advanced mechanical ventilation heat recovery systems (MVHR) which incorporate heat pumps. This paper covers the testing and performance of a novel MVHR heat pump system developed for the domestic market [S.B. Riffat, The University of Nottingham: Patent no. GB9522882.1, 1995; Patent no. GB9522882.1, 1996; Patent no. GB9507035.5, 1995]. The novel system uses revolving heat exchangers which both impel air and transfer heat. Low grade heat recovered from the exhaust air is upgraded by a heat pump and used for heating the fresh supply air. The system typically provides 2 kW of heating for air supplied at 250 m³/h. The prototype system has a heating coefficient of performance (COP) of up to 5 and an average system of COP 2.5 over a range of conditions. The system can also be used for cooling by switching the air flows over the evaporator and condenser. The prototype system requires very little maintenance and is compact and energy efficient.     

空气源热泵新风机组节能防冻研究

本文讨论了寒冷地区新风机组冬季被冻坏的原因及传统解决方法的问题,提出了空气热泵新风机组节能防冻新方法,即利用热泵冷凝器回收排风废热以加热引入室内新风。新系统的运行经验表明,各种温度随时间的变化趋于稳定,热泵的平均COP=3．7—4．6,节约电能达52％～84％,解决了防冻问题并改善了室内空气质量。     

The use of floor panel energy storage in a heat pump heated dwelling

A method of improving the performance of heat pumps for domestic space heating has been investigated. The study focuses on the short-term storage of heat pump output energy in concrete floor panels. This paper describes the dynamic computer simulation of an air to water heat pump, a floor panel energy store and energy flowpaths in a dwelling. The heating plant, controls and building thermal behaviour, were simulated as a complete energy system to enable the study of interactions between the subsystems. The model heating system comprised a number of under floor water heated panels installed in ground floor rooms of a two storey dwelling. Supplementary energy was supplied by direct electric heaters situated in most rooms. Heat pump operating periods were controlled as a function of the external air temperature within two prescribed occupancy intervals per day. Results of the investigation indicate that a heat pump system using floor panel storage and emission may be efficiently managed to provide nearly continuous heating with little supplementary energy input. The short-term storage of energy in thick floor panels allowed the heat pump to be operated for extended periods without cycling. Because of this, the seasonal loss in heat pump performance resulting from intermittent operation was less than 1 per cent. Attempting to supply the total space heating load with the heat pump and floor panel system resulted in severe overheating during periods of high solar or casual gain. Under these conditions the simple control strategy based on the measurement of external air temperature was ineffective. This problem was eliminated by reducing the heat pump energy input to the dwelling and supplying about 10 per cent of the seasonal energy demand by direct electric heaters. The influence of floor panel energy storage capacity on the performance of the heating system was investigated. Concrete panel depths of between 25 and 150 mm were considered. The seasonal system efficiency was found to increase with floor panel thickness, although not significantly with panel depths beyond 100 mm. The extensive use of floor slabs to store energy caused mean floor temperatures to be higher than when using direct electric air heaters only. However, with the depth of under floor insulation considered in the study (75 mm), heating the floor slab increased the seasonal energy loss of the building by only 4 per cent.     

矸石砖厂排烟废热回收系统研究

叙述了利用高效热风换热器,将矸石砖厂排烟、排潮回风中蕴含的热能交换到循环水中,实现为热泵系统提供稳定的低温热源,替代传统的燃煤锅炉,为冬季采暖、井筒防冻及洗浴提供热水的节能改造情况,提出,热泵系统联合排烟热能回收系统的研究思路、设计方案.