Modeling of Micro-Cooling, Heating, and Power (Micro-CHP) for Residential or Small Commercial Building Applications

Abstract

The increasing demand for electrical power as well as energy for heating and cooling of residences and small commercial buildings is a growing worldwide concern. Cooling, Heating, and Power (CHP) is a promising technology for increased energy efficiency through the use of distributed electric and thermal energy delivery systems at end-user sites. Micro-cooling, heating, and power (micro-CHP) is decentralized electricity generation coupled with thermally activated components for residential and small commercial applications. Micro-CHP systems, typically designated as less than thirty kilowatts electric, can simultaneously produce heat, cooling effects, and electrical power. The number of combinations of components and parameters in a micro-CHP system are too many to be designed through experimental work alone. Therefore, theoretical models for different micro-CHP components and complete micro-CHP systems are needed to facilitate the design of these systems and to study their performance. This paper presents a model for micro-CHP systems for residential and small commercial applications. Some of the results that can be obtained using the developed model include: the cost per month of operation of using micro-CHP versus conventional technologies, the amount of fuel per month required to run micro-CHP systems, the overall efficiency of micro-CHP systems, etc. Also, this model allows to evaluate micro-CHP systems using different type of fuels such as: natural gas, propane, biofuels, etc, to determine the fuel that provides the best performance.