Analysis of the Combined Ice Storage (PCM) Heating System Installation with Special Kind of Solar Absorber in an Older House

Abstract

The energy storage field is nowadays a highly ranking topic. This research deals with the installation and analysis of the ice storage system which combines heat pump, solar absorber, and ice storage tank (phase change material—PCM). This system uses a special kind of solar absorber – header pipes (HDP), which have no thermal isolation compared to the common solar absorber. Thanks to that the HDP, pipes can absorb thermal energy not only from the sun but also from the environment. The rain or snow also affects heat exchange. All that is provided by one technical device. The system can store thermal energy gained from the solar absorber into the ice storage tank for future usage. Research works with data from the real operation, for a period of the year covering all working phases/modes of the system. The analysis of the data led to the identification of several specific modes of the system, especially from the processes taking place in the PCM storage tank during its charging and discharging at various time stages of operation of the whole system. The installation and analysis of the ice storage system probably took place for the first time in Slovakia and Slovak Republic’s conditions. Besides, this system was not installed on a new low-energy house, but on an older family house with thermal insulation. The aim of this installation was also to demonstrate the usability of the ice storage system in an older house and potentially reduce the homeowner’s fees thanks to new technology with higher efficiency. We managed to comprehensively analyze and describe the operation of this system, which also appears to be highly efficient even in a family house with a lower energy certificate, than today’s new low-energy buildings. The results showed a significant efficiency difference in favor of the ice storage system compared to conventional heating systems. The total analysis time was 1616 h and the total efficiency of this heating system—the seasonal coefficient of performance (SCOP) was 4.4. Compared to the average SCOP 3.0 of conventional heating systems for new low-energy houses, the total efficiency increased by 46.6%. These results could therefore be considered as beneficial, especially if we take into account that this system was installed on an approximately 40-year-old family house. The analyzed ice storage system is still working today. The main goals of this paper were to describe the heat pump’s duty cycle with ice storage (PCM) based on real-life data and bring a detailed description of the heat transfer medium behavior at various phases of storing/utilizing heat in the vertical ice storage’s profile for increasing efficiency.

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