Technologies

The overall aim is to provide heating and cooling to residential and tertiary buildings with lower emissions, energy bills, and fossil fuel dependency. Moreover, the project will bring performance increase, cost reduction through also an optimized size and installation cost reduction, increased reliability in a lifetime, and reduced maintenance as well as their integration in 5 Technology packages (TPs).

5 different technology combinations, known as Technology Packages (TPs), are supplied to the demo sites, combining the technologies listed below. Indeed, one of the main goals of SunHorizon is to introduce technology innovations to be firstly validated at a laboratory scale and finally on real demo-site applications.

The technologies will be properly managed by a cloud-based functional monitoring platform with services such as demand prediction, proactive and predictive maintenance tools, or a hybrid advance controller (supported by a smart user interface). The services will help maximize solar exploitation and give the manufacturer inputs for new installation designs.

The TPs will be demonstrated in the 8 SunHorizon demo sites (9 buildings).

SunHorizon TPs

The demo sites needs are supplied with 5 different technology combinations, that combine the following technologies:

• Heat Pumps: FAHRENHEIT, BDR Thermea Group and BoostHEAT
• Solar technologies: TVP Solar, BDR Thermea Group, and DualSun
• Storage: Ratiotherm and BDR Thermea Group

Indeed, integrating solar and heat pump technology aims to cover the whole heating and cooling (H&C) demand of the building in order to maximize solar self-consumption and guarantee adequate internal comfort.

The 5 SunHorizon TPs are:

1. Innovative gas-fired heat pump with high-vacuum panels
2. Innovative gas-fired heat pump with improved PVT solar panels
3. Hybrid adsorption-compression chiller with high-vacuum solar panels
4. Brine water heat pump assisted with improved PVT solar panels
5. Hybrid adsorption-compression chiller with high-vacuum solar panels innovative gas-fired heat pump

Technology package 1 (TP1):

TP1 consists in a parallel integration of TVP solar collectors to cover most of the heating demand (space heating and domestic hot water) and BH to cover non-solar periods. Via the stratification system, the solar heat use is maximized. TP1 is applied in an apartment building in Berlin (Germany).

Technology package 2 (TP2):

TP2 has DS PVT panels whose thermal output assists the BH evaporator and covers preheating of demand, enhancing the HP performance. Furthermore, the electricity needs are covered with the photovoltaic output. TP2 is applied in an apartment building in Nurnberg (Germany), and two single-family houses in Riga (Latvia).

Technology package 3 (TP3):

TP3 has TVP collectors to cover the heating demand in winter, while in summer the solar output drives the adsorption chiller from Fahrenheit to meet the space cooling needs. TP3 is applied to a tertiary building in Sant Cugat del Vallès (Spain), replacing the constant speed HP currently installed, which is electrical-driven.

Technology package 4 (TP4):

TP4 is applied in the Madrid (Spain) demo site relying on reversible HP from BDR, dual production of solar heat and electricity, and versatile thermal storage. In Madrid, a 9-apartment building, the COP of the BDR brine/water HP benefits from both thermal and electricity outputs of the DS hybrid PVT panels; while air/water HP is used as a backup. The electricity production covers the heat pump’s consumption and the dwelling’s demand.

Technology package 5 (TP5):

TP5 is composed by TVP solar collectors, RT high stratification storage tank, FAHR hybrid chiller and the BH thermal HP. The hot water produced by TVP is stored in the high stratification RT tank, providing high temperature to the adsorption input and for DHW and space heating. The chilled water produced by FAHR hybrid chiller is stored in a smaller tank and then delivered to the space cooling system. During winter the pre-heated water by TVP is delivered to the BH unit that, if necessary, heats it up to cover the space heating and DHW demand.

Expected impacts

The technical partners of the project (CEA, CARTIF, CNR/ITAE and RINA) estimated the building energy demand of the 8 Demonstrators (9 buildings in total). They used TRNSYS software, calibrated on theirs monthly gas and electricity bills. From the results, it is estimated that SunHorizon technology packages will allow to achieve 33-70% GHG emissions savings and 30-85% operation costs savings in the different demo sites. TP1 to TP4 will be demonstrated in different demo sites, while TP5 will be only tested in simulation, in 3 locations and 2 types of buildings (tertiary and apartment building).

The following table shows the detailed performance expected of each technology package.

Please, you can find more information on the “Innovate heat pump solutions: the SunHorizon Technology Packages” by SunHorizon, published by REHVA, here.