Germany

56

National team:

  • Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Freiburg
  • RWTH Aachen University

Research work related to IoT and heat pumps:

Fraunhofer ISE

Fraunhofer ISE has many years of experience in heat pump technology, with expertise covering the entire value chain. Our work focuses on the development and refinement of materials and different components, testing and inspection of individual devices, examination of different heat pump installations in real-world conditions in the field and integration of heat pumps into the overall energy system. Referred to IoT and heat pumps different projects are running. Methods of AI applied for heat pumps, especially of Reinforcement Learning and Predictive Analysis are addressed in the I4C project. Within the ISWK projects simplified BIM methods in the context of small retrofit projects as well as smart control of a building composite are to be developed.

Fraunhofer ISE joins the Annex 56 within the framework of the research project “WP-QS im Bestand” (Heat Pumps-Quality Assurance in Existing Buildings). In order to facilitate the necessary expansion, various hurdles need to be overcome in general, particularly in existing buildings. Of assistance here is the demonstration and analysis of the efficiency of heat pumps under typical conditions in existing buildings and the development of suitable measures to ensure efficiency. The project focuses on single-family homes. Participating working groups are Building Performance Optimization and Building Systems Technology.

RWTH Aachen

With regard to digitization in the field of building energy technology, the development process and operation of systems are only poorly addressed. The current state of the art in this field is that development issues are tackled in the R&D departments of the companies and the results end up in a prototype, which then goes through various test phases.  This development is cumbersome and time-consuming.

In the DZWi project, the focus is on developing a digital representation of different energy conversion systems (heat pump/fuel cell) in detail, with the help of which R&D times can be shortened. The combination of scientific institutions and producers of modern heating technology is to be regarded as advantageous, since the Digital Twins to be created can be tested directly on practically relevant products. On the basis of “hardware-in-the-loop” (HiL) tests, fundamental parameters for heat pumps and fuel cells are to be determined. In addition to the measurement analysis, an important component is the most exact possible description of the dynamic and static behavior, e.g. of the refrigeration cycle. Here, a generally applicable methodology is to be developed that also takes into account the use of future refrigerants with regard to the F-gas regulation. The core of all development work is a cloud environment, which should enable scalability of the results for the entire life cycle of the system. Detailed information on the project is provided on the project website https://dzwi-waerme.com/.

Links to institutes, research projects, etc:

Contact:

Danny Günther, Group Building Systems Technology, Fraunhofer ISE, email: danny.guenther@ise.fraunhofer.de

Tim Rist, Group Building Performance Optimization, Fraunhofer ISE, email: tim.rist@ise.fraunhofer.de

Sebastian Borges, E.ON Energy Research Center, RWTH Aachen, email: Sebastian.Borges@eonerc.rwth-aachen.de

Philipp Mehrfeld, E.ON Energy Research Center, RWTH Aachen, email: pmehrfeld@eonerc.rwth-aachen.de

Christian Vering, E.ON Energy Research Center, RWTH Aachen, email: cvering@eonerc.rwth-aachen.de