Influence of thermal zoning and electric radiator control on the energy flexibility potential of Norwegian detached houses

Thea Johnsen,Laurent Georges,Katrine Taksdal,John Clauß,Xingji Yu,S.I Tanabe,G Cao,C Inard,I Nastase,L Mazzarela,P Wargocki,J Kurnitski,M.C Gameiro Da Silva,H Zhang

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/201911106030

Abstract

Energy flexibility of buildings can be used to reduce energy use and costs, peak power, CO2eq- emissions or to increase self-consumption of on-site electricity generation. Thermal mass activation proved to have a large potential for energy flexible operation. The indoor temperature is then allowed to fluctuate between a minimum and maximum value. Many studies investigating thermal mass activation consider electric radiators. Nevertheless, these studies most often assume that radiators modulate their emitted power, while, in reality, they are typically operated using thermostat (on-off) control. Firstly, this article aims at comparing the energy flexibility potential of thermostat and P-controls for Norwegian detached houses using detailed dynamic simulations (here IDA ICE). It is evaluated whether the thermostat converges to a P-control for a large number of identical buildings. As the buildings are getting better insulated, the impact of internal heat gains (IHG) becomes increasingly important. Therefore, the influence of different IHG profiles has been evaluated in the context of energy flexibility. Secondly, most studies about energy flexibility consider a single indoor temperature. This is questionable in residential buildings where people may want different temperature zones. This is critical in Norway where many occupants want cold bedrooms (~16°C) during winter time and open bedroom windows for this purpose. This article answers to these questions for two different building insulation levels and two construction modes (heavy and lightweight).

Highlights

Energy consumption needs to be more flexible
This section successively shows the effect of the radiator control type, the internal heat gains (IHG) profile and the temperature zoning on the flexibility potential
In passive house (PH) buildings, the off-peak hour control strategy (OPCS) leads to zero energy and power consumption during the four defined peak hours of the day throughout the year

Summary

Introduction

Energy consumption needs to be more flexible. The use of power demanding electric appliances is increasing which means that consumers are demanding more power from the distribution grid than before and often at the same time. The power grid is dimensioned to accommodate the highest possible load that can occur. Since the consumption of electricity varies significantly over hours, days and years, the grid will only experience this dimensioning load for short periods [1]. An increasing production from intermittent energy sources such as solar and wind may have serious adverse effects on the stability of the electricity grid. It will become increasingly important to shift from a system based on generation-ondemand to a system where the energy use is flexible and controlled according to grid requirements or intermittent energy production

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