Together with the IEA HPT Annex 50 on “Heat pumps in Multi-family buildings” and IEA EBC Annex 67 on “Energy Flexibility”, the Annex 49 has been presented on a workshop at the IEA Heat Pump Conference in Rotterdam.
The workshop gave an overview of three running Annexes, that are in different stages, from just beginning to already well underway. As mentioned above the Annexes from which the work was presented came from different IEA TCPs, with 2 Annexes from the HPT TCP and 1 from the EBC TCP.
In the first part of IEA HPT Annex 49 it was presented that although there is no uniform definition of nZEB (yet), there are plenty of interesting examples and useful research being done, emphasing the important role for heat pumps in nZEB. Also, when it comes to nZEB, we need heat pumps, but also other technologies like PV and storage. This makes is necessary for good (international) collaboration, also between IEA TCPs.
In the second part of IEA HPT Annex 50 it was presented that multi family houses are a significant part of the total building stock, e.g. in Germany. There is a definite potential for heat pumps in multi-family houses (MFH), and the work of Annex 50 will focus on that. As for the source to use in MFH, often it has to be dealt with urban areas, where many renewable sources are hard to use. So the source to use may often be air, where restricted possibilities for other sources exist.
In the last part of EBC Annex 67 it was learned that flexible availability of renewable sources makes need for energy flexibility in buildings. One of the items under research is about control mechanisms. Also different systems for thermal energy storage (TES) are presented.
In all cases examples (and need for) good collaboration, both within and in between Annexes was presented.
As conclusion in both nZEB and multifamily buildings heat pumps will have a high market potential. For the energy production of nZEB, also a close link to energy flexible buildings exist. So, collaboration will be continued. Another important aspect is DHW. Therefore, future collaboration will be initiated with the DHW Annex HPT 46.
Publications of the workshop are found under publications.