Mixed technologies BEMs ( Building Energy Management ) case study 1
Customer has 4kWp of ground mount solar and a ground source heat pump for heating and hot water. The electricity costs are very high and the heating system struggles to maintain temperature.
Investigation
An I2W was fitted to monitor consumption. which showed that the efficiency of the GSHP was good but its return temperatures was high. . The solar was being exported most of the time on sunny days.
Recommendation
Connect the output of the I2W to the DHW tank immersion which is also fed by the GSHP.
Turn on the radiators in the first floor unoccupied rooms to prevent the ground floor supplying heat through the ceilings which are not insulated.
Results
The solar power is now 100% utilized even in summer as there is a large demand for hot water. Electricity consumption reduced due to hot water being supplied by solar most of the time and efficiency improvements in the GSHP due to return temperatures lowered by not trying to heat the whole house by the ground floor emitters.