The Significance of Thermal Energy Storage for Efficient Energy Use (original) (raw)

The structure of the technically proven building used in simulations was modified to investigate the influence of the space thermal capacity on heating and cooling demand. In every case, the overall heat transmission coefficient of the external walls was kept at the same level to assure comparable conditions of the survey. Results presented in this paper are based on the overall building simulations by means of the Energy Plus program. The air heating and cooling systems allowed to maintain the minimum, continuous internal air temperature at 20 o C and maximum not higher than 25 0 C. The high thermal capacity of the space is more important to reduce the overheating rather than to increase the efficiency of the solar energy use. It allows also to minimize the cooling output power of the system. Practically, 10-12cm layers of concrete or brickwork provide enough thermal capacity to reduce the cooling needs. The high thermal stability of the space appears to be, paradoxically, very useful during the colder periods of the summer. It helps to reduce temperature fluctuations and to avoid low internal air temperatures when the heating system is turned off.

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