Performance Analysis of a Hybrid Solar-Geothermal Heating/Cooling System as an Integral Element of a Building Envelope

Project Description:

Energy generation and its consumption nowadays are one of the main concerns of worldwide societies. According to Natural Resources Canada, about 82% of the GHG (greenhouse gases) emissions come from energy. While 64% of the total energy used in the residential sector is consumed due to space heating and cooling.

The project investigates the energy performance of a 100 sq.ft. real-scale test shed constructed by Building Science students. The test shed is equipped with a sustainable in-floor heating and cooling hydronic system using Uponor PEX piping and designed to include three closed loops: in-floor hydronic system, solar heating system powered by vacuum tube collector and future geothermal cooling system that includes ground heat exchanger (please see the layout of the systems).

The in-floor hydronic heating system was installed as a part of Uponor – Algonquin College project that aimed to investigate the performance of Uponor PEX piping application at the radiant heating systems. The industrial partner (Uponor Ltd.) has a particular interest in assessing energy efficiency, thermal comfort, usage efficiency, regulatory compliance, and ease of installation and maintenance of their product. The main aim of the hydronic part of the project is to help the industrial partner demonstrate and market the superiority of its PEX products and solutions by providing Uponor Ltd. with a detailed analysis of the results from the future system testing.

Initially, the project design involved only a hydronic heating system powered by a solar collector. However, the testing of heating system can be carried out only during cold periods, which means that the system can be valuably tested only during late autumn, winter, and earlier spring. For this reason, it was decided to add to the design a geothermal loop with a ground heat exchanger that will allow examining the hydronic system also for the cooling application during the summer.

So far, there are only two loops are being installed in the shed – solar and In-floor hydronic systems – with the pre-installed 3-way valves that will allow connecting the geothermal loop in the future. The geothermal loop design was done according to the research on similar systems and validated with the help of software such as LoopCAD (hydronic system design and simulation of performance), Energy2D and ANSYS (heat transfer simulation for obtaining the size of ground heat exchanger loop). The further steps will be to test the solar heating system during the upcoming cold period as well as complete the installation of the geothermal loop.

In addition to evaluating the heating/cooling system, the shed’s changeable wall panels that designed in a way to facilitate testing the effect of different details and composition of wall assembly on the building envelope performance. Furthermore, a series of various building envelope tests- such as blower door test, already completed, and infrared thermography- will assist in analyzing the energy performance of the shed as a complete unit.

All the testing opportunities that this equipped shed provides will enable college students and professors to perform a regular range of repeatable applied research activities to test, analyze, and benchmark the performance and effectiveness of the systems used in this project as well as to connect them with the building envelope performance.

The project is sponsored and made possible by the office of Applied Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Uponor Ltd (PEX), and the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

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