Heat-pump-centered Integrated Community Energy Systems: systems development, Consolidated Natural Gas Service Company. Final report

Abstract

The Heat-Actuated Heat Pump Centered Integrated Community Energy System (HAHP-ICES) utilizes a gas-fired, engine-driven, heat pump and commercial buildings, and offers several advantages over the more conventional equipment it is intended to supplant. The general non-site-specific application assumes a hypothetical community of one 59,000 ft/sup 2/ office building and five 24-unit, low-rise apartment buildings located in a region with a climate similar to Chicago. This community serves as a starting point - the base case - upon which various sensitivity analyses are performed and through which the performance characteristics of the HAHP are explored. The results of these analyses provided the selection criteria for the site-specific application of the HAHP-ICES concept to a real-world community. The site-specific community consists of 42 townhouses; five 120-unit, low-rise apartment buildings; five 104-unit high-rise apartment buildings; one 124,000 ft/sup 2/ office building; and a single 135,000 ft/sup 2/ retail building located in Monroeville, Pa. The base-case analyses confirmed that the HAHP-ICES has significant potentials for reducing the primary energy consumption and pollutant emissions associated with space conditioning when compared with a conventional system. Primary energy consumption was reduced by 30%, while emission reductions ranged from 39 to 77%. The results of the site-specific analysismore » indicate that reductions in energy consumption of between 15 and 22% are possible when a HAHP-ICES is selected as opposed to conventional HVAC equipment.« less