Poly-generation as a solution to address the energy challenge of an aging population

Abstract

The increasing number of elderly people (over 65 years of age), long-term home care policies and the generally higher energy demand of houses inhabited by elderly people will pose an energy challenge for the built environment. The paper analyses the benefits of poly-generation technologies, focusing on the case of hard to heat homes in Northern Ireland. The energy consumption of a test house that is representative of 28% of Northern Ireland housing stock and of a house with elderly inhabitants has been monitored without any intervention. An optimization procedure has been developed to identify the optimal mix of poly-generation technologies. The technologies considered are micro-combined heat and power, heat pump and photovoltaic systems with possible integration of thermal energy storage systems. Six scenarios based on different energy tariffs and technology incentives have been presented. In the best case scenario, the combination of photovoltaic, heat pump and thermal energy storage provides 26% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and 80% savings in the energy bill compared to standard energy generation. The investment required would be in the order of £11,000. In Northern Ireland, 307,000 households (79.1% more than in 2012) will have elderly inhabitants Highlights • The built environment is facing an energy challenge due to an aging population. • Benefits of poly-generation for houses inhabited by elderly people were analysed. • Results show 26% reduction in CO 2 emissions and 80% savings in the energy bill.

An experimental study of solar thermal system with storage for domestic applications

“…whereas x can be calculated as follows; (19) where T1 and T2 are the inlet and outlet temperatures of the fluid, while T0 is the ambient temperature. The trend of the exergy efficiencies of the solar collector under consideration is shown in Figure 8 with the help of the exergy efficiency curve for the solar collector.…”

“…Therefore, in this study an effort has been made to select design and select proper components according to the building requirements by having information from the weather data and the water consumption pattern. The system can be useful to be employed with other renewable energy sources like heat pump, PV, Cogeneration to have a polygeneration system [19]. In this way maximum contribution will be coming from renewable sources.…”

A Comprehensive Technoeconomic and Environmental Evaluation of a Hybrid Renewable Energy System for a Smart Farm in South Korea

“…This can be achieved by comparing the CO 2 emissions of the system to that of a conventional heating system. Accordingly, the CO 2 emission reduction ratio (CO 2 ER) is presented, and it can be evaluated from the following expression [53]:…”

Assessing the benefits of decentralised residential batteries for load peak shaving

“…These houses are mid-terraced, energy inefficient design, built according to 1900 standards, and represent 28% of the UK housing stock. The house considered is inhabited by a family of three, comprising two adults and a teenager [35]. Monitoring equipment is located in the guard chambers and measures the electricity consumption with one-minute resolution.…”

“…It was assumed that the house is equipped with a 2kWp PV panel on its rooftop, oriented with a 32° tilt angle and -40° azimuth angle. Its generation profile for the 1-year period was generated by TRNSYS [35]. The net demand profile was thus obtained by subtracting the PV profile to the house demand profile.…”