Abstract
The primary energy consumption in residential buildings is determined by the envelope thermal characteristics, air change, outside climatic data, users’ behaviour and the adopted heating system and its control. The new Italian regulations strongly suggest the installation of centralized boilers in renovated buildings with more than four apartments. This work aims to investigate the differences in primary energy consumption and efficiency among several independent and centralized heating systems installed in Northern Italy. The analysis is carried out through the following approach: firstly building heating loads are evaluated using the software TRNSYS® and, then, heating system performances are estimated through a simplified model based on the European Standard EN 15316. Several heating systems have been analyzed, evaluating: independent and centralized configurations, condensing and traditional boilers, radiator and radiant floor emitters and solar plant integration. The heating systems are applied to four buildings dating back to 2010, 2006, 1960s and 1930s. All the combinations of heating systems and buildings are analyzed in detail, evaluating efficiency and primary energy consumption. In most of the cases the choice between centralized and independent heating systems has minor effects on primary energy consumption, less than 3%: the introduction of condensing technology and the integration with solar heating plant can reduce energy consumption by 11% and 29%, respectively.
Highlights
In Europe residential building heating accounts for a considerable part of the primary energy consumption, almost every State has defined a regulation to promote energy saving
Note that the boiler efficiency does not take into account the heat supplied by solar heating plant, it refers only to the heat effectively supplied by the boiler, see
Among the analyzed aspects the major influence on boiler efficiency is given by the choice between traditional or condensing technology: the latter increases this index by 6–10%
Summary
In Europe residential building heating accounts for a considerable part of the primary energy consumption, almost every State has defined a regulation to promote energy saving. The Italian current regulation [1] strongly suggests the utilization of centralized systems in renovated buildings with more than four apartments [2]. Exceptions require a suitable technical report based on methodologies reported in national or European standards. The utilized methodologies can be eventually integrated by national research centres or universities [3]. Some Italian regions are considering extending this recommendation to new residential buildings. To our knowledge there are no papers in which a direct and systematic comparison of several independent and centralized heating systems is reported
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