Influence of zoning and control of individual heating systems on the comfort and the energy consumption of residential buildings

Abstract

Thermal zoning control can be appropriate solution to simultaneously ensure thermal com-fort and to reduce the energy consumption through differential heating/cooling. The topic of the master research project is Influence of zoning and control of individual heating systems on the comfort and the energy consumption of residential buildings. This work presents the study of a single family house located near Vitoria Gasteiz. The concept supports the increase in energy efficiency and indoor comfort for occupants by dividing the house for thermal zones. The work proposes modeling of patterns using the building modelling software Design Build-er. 49 scenarios – a thermal zones, which consist of basic zonal control, it is also called conven-tional system control. This zonal control consists of whole house thermostat setpoint located in the kitchen or in living room that allows to maintain the constant setpoint temperature. And zonal control: each zone or floor has individual thermostat setpoint. For some zonal control were applied TRVs or PTRV control on radiators. In total there are five zonal controls in this work. For all type of control systems different set-point temperature scenarios were: 18°C, 20°C, 22°C; the individual heating system and different type of boilers; and occupancy profiles were proposed. After the simulations, the obtained results were compared, analyzed in detail and the energy and economic saving were determined. It is necessary to obtain the most energy and economy efficient option while maintaining comfortable indoor conditions. These results show that pro-posed scenarios could be an energy and cost-effective strategies at the same time providing the inner comfort. According to the results maximum energy saving of around 70% (corresponds to scenarios of zonal control Z5) and energy saving of about 50%-70% (coincides to Z4) are ob-tained. These zonal controls are equipped by TRVs. Concerning to heating system, condensing modulating boiler at set-point temperature of 18°C has highest energy saving of 93,5% for occu-pancy profile O1 (occupancy all day, set-point temperature 17°C for night, 4 person), although this set-point temperature is not considers as comfortable, but set-point temperatures of 20°C and 22°C are.