Hybrid Energy Systems in Future Low Carbon Buildings
 
Scope  
Background  
Design concept  
Hybrid concept  
Methodology  
Modelling tools  
Case study results  
Environmental impact  
  



Project scope
This project is about the evaluation of hybrid energy systems for future low carbon buildings as well as some considerations about their physical implementation within the structure itself. In this project we have focused on individual dwellings only. Large commercial buildings or multi-storeys residential buildings are not covered.

We are also focusing on UK and other European countries type climate and dwellings, we therefore consider that we are grid-connected, however many of our results obtained or tools developed can be applied to isolated dwellings.

It is essential to define clearly what we mean by low carbon buildings.

  • In term of electricity, we aim at achieving a net-zero electricity consumption. This means that the amount of electricity consumed should be matched as close as possible by the amount of renewable electricity produced on site.
  • The heat generated on site should be from renewable sources.
  • The lifecycle carbon analysis is a complex subject itself and is not covered within the scope of this project.
Future low carbon buildings refer to the fact that we are considering dwellings built according to passive standards. It also means that we have looked at the impact of future potential prices change in our financial analysis.

We have focused first on the technical feasibility to achieve a low-carbon building. We have also looked at the financial analysis of the various renewable sources options.
The financial analysis look at the viability of systems and take into account the feed-in tariffs in place but also look at potential future scenarios.

We have also focused on optimising the size of systems and particular the heat generating systems for two reasons, one is the requirement for physical integration to a normal size dwelling but also the economical viability including renewable heat incentives income.

The purpose of this project is to explore hybrid combinations of renewable energy sources that are not standard equipment available commercially and have been extensively investigated in research. We will provide adequate background information of what is standard nowadays but we will not conduct extensive analysis of these and will assume they are readily available. For more detailed info see the Background section.

Some of the areas relatively novel we proposed to look at include:

   Design of hybrid heat generating systems

    · Management of temperature inputs- outputs

    · Evaluation of mechanical ventilation heat recovery

    · Effect of ground duct ventilation on cooling demand

    · Effect of solar panels for domestic water heating

    · Evaluation of seasonal thermal storage

   Design of hybrid electricity generating systems

    · Evaluation of photovoltaic panels combined with small scale wind connected to the grid (to supply directly or indirectly the required domestic electric demand)

Note:

We believe small wind generation benefits are still difficult to evaluate properly based on common available knowledge and will look at it closely.