Energy and economic analysis of domestic heating costs based on distributed energy resources: A case study in Spain

Abstract

Energy electrification is part of the European strategy for the decarbonization of the building sector and energy transition in cities. The present paper compares the heating costs of covering the heating demand by different systems: (i) domestic gas boiler and an air-to-air heat-pump, (ii) without and (iii) with local PV backup; in order to analyze the effects of the electric price volatility along with the weather condition dependency of the renewable systems. The study presents a heat pump model and a PV generation model to estimate the hourly performance of both systems. These models are then applied in an average dwelling in Bilbao, Spain, in November 2020, and November 2021. Results show that in November 2020 the combined use of a heat pump with PV generation to cover the heat demand was 66% cheaper than covering the same demand with a natural gas boiler. By contrast, the combined use of the PV and heat pump resulted in a 15% higher energy bill compared to the natural gas in 2021 due to the increase of the electricity prices (3 times higher), the lower temperatures (25%) and less solar radiation (70%).