Online Tool for pre-sizing Solar Heating and Cooling Installations

Pre-sizing tool online: The international consortium of the European Project SolarCombi+ has just published an online calculation tool for solar heating and cooling projects with a cooling capacity of up to 20 kW.

Pre-sizing tool online: The international consortium of the European Project SolarCombi+ has just published an online calculation tool for solar heating and cooling projects with a cooling capacity of up to 20 kW.

The online tool is available on wis.eurac.edu/solarcombiplus/Default.aspx (no registration necessary). It allows any user or installer of heating and cooling systems to identify a range of suitable configurations for so-called “SolarCombi+” projects. These projects are defined by the consortium as standard, small-sized and combined systems for heating, cooling and domestic hot water, which possess a cooling capacity of up to 20 kW. The correspondent EU project SolarCombi+ aims at identifying and promoting such “kit” solutions including small absorption/adsorption chillers.

The above-mentioned website explains that, “this is not a pre-design tool to simulate the functioning of a system under selected conditions”. The tool only allows you to choose among predefined solutions, which were the result of dynamic simulations for specific application areas (two residential buildings and one office) in three European cities (Strasbourg, Toulouse, Naples).

The following describes how to use the tool:
First, select between three common climate conditions. These conditions relate to certain European regions, as can be seen on the map of the screen shot shown above. Second, decide between three different building typologies. As a next step, place a check mark below the picture of the distribution technology implemented for cooling the building, be it fan coils or a radiant technology system (cooling ceiling). The next choice on the list refers to solar technology and offers the decision between flat plate collectors and evacuated tube collectors. Finally, choose a heat rejection technology. Three technologies are available here: wet cooling tower, dry air cooler and dry cooler fitted with water sprays (hybrid cooler).

To finish the process, click the calculation button. The program will pick up results in a database developed by the SolarCombi+ partners based on TRNSYS simulations with different configurations and sizes for solar collectors and tank storage. At the industrial partners’ request, results will be shown without specifying the type of chiller used. You can also change the different inlet parameters (collector type, heat rejection system, distribution system, etc.) and compare the energetic results the tool can offer, including the used solar energy fraction, the primary energy savings, etc.

Consulting these results, an installer can evaluate in concrete terms whether the gained results open up the opportunity to install a Solar Combi + system on the building in question.

More information:
http://www.solarcombiplus.eu