Ecological and financial aspects of gas boiler co-operation with alternative energy sources for multi-family buildings

Abstract

Due to intensive economic and industrial development in the last decades, resulting in environmental degradation and too fast depletion of natural resources, there is an increasing interest in implementing sustainable development principles, i.e. meeting human needs with environmental considerations. The construction industry is a major consumer of energy in the world, so it is justified to aim at reducing energy consumption, increasing energy efficiency and maximizing the use of waste energy and renewable energy. In the case of residential buildings, one use the most energy for heating of water for utility purposes and for central heating purposes. Not large multi-family residential buildings are characterized by similar parameters of energy needs as single-family buildings, which results primarily from the nature of use. The main difference between single and multi-family buildings is the area per capita. Smaller area reduces energy consumption for room. On the other hand, the higher demand for hot water follow the larger number of inhabitants. As a primary source of heat in urban areas, there are currently used solid fuel boilers, gas boilers or using system heat. Owing to the smog phenomenon, old coal boilers are being modernized to reduce pollutant emissions into the atmosphere. In this publication, the example of hot water installation in a multi-family building shows what effects will be achieved if we use alternative sources such as solar collectors or heat pumps for traditional gas water heating systems. For each of the two variants, the approximate investment outlays and costs associated with the operation of the system in the variant were estimated and the estimated annual emissions from the incineration of natural gas