Efficiency Analysis of Solar Assisted Heat Supply Systems in Multi-Family Houses
Abstract
There are two major approaches to mitigate energy-related emissions of dwellings: Insulating the building’s envelope on the one hand and modernizing its heat supply system on the other hand. Often the insulation of dwellings leads to lower energy savings than expected (Greller et al., 2010), which is assumed to be related to the heat losses of the heat distribution system itself. So attention needs to be drawn to the modernization of the heat supply system, which can lead to a significant reduction of the building’s final energy demand (Jahnke et al., 2015). This paper is following this approach and focuses on the heat supply and distribution system of multi-family houses (MFH), representing a significant share of Germany’s residential market. The present work compares different systems for multi-family houses by means of its primary energy demand, energy efficiency and economic aspects. Heat distribution losses are analyzed and their relevance for efficient systems is discussed. Based on this analysis, the work highlights effective integration routes of solar thermal supply systems which may lead to increased efficiency of the overall heat supply system.
Keywords
Multi-family houses, Heat supply, Heat distribution, Heat distribution losses, Energy efficiency