Lessons learned
- Use of innovative heat source – ice storage connected with solar thermal absorbers works very well for multi family buildings with very low energy demand (passive house standard).
- Comprehensive concept including PV modules lets increase the energetic independent of the buildings.
Key facts
| Building | Heat pump and source | |||
| Location | Tilburg, NL | Number of HP | 2 | |
| Construction | 2016 | Installed power | 6 kW + 10kW | |
| Heat distribution | underfloor heating | Operation mode | monoenergetic | |
| Heated area | 957 m² living | Heat source | outside air & ATES | |
| Level of insulation | very good | |||
| Heating system | Domestic hot water | |||
| Heat demand | XXX | Type of system | central | |
| Heating temperature | 35 °C | Max. temperature | 60 °C | |
| Circulation system | yes | |||
| Other information | ||||
| Electric energy consumption 2016 | 16850 kWh | |||
| Investments costs | XXX | |||
| PV installation | yes | |||
Description of the technical concept
The heat provided from the solar collector can either be put into the ice storage by a heat exchanger or fed to the heat pumps. It is impossible to use heat from the solar collector directly to heat the DHW or the SH storage because the temperature is too low and must be brought to a higher level by the heat pumps before. Depending on the current heating requirement, one or two heat pumps work. They always work in one mode (DHW or SH storage) and ensure that the temperature in the storages remains within the desired range. Instead of the solar collector, the heat pump can also be fed from the ice storage. If both heat sources are not sufficient, there is the further possibility to heat the two storages with an auxiliary heater. During the summer, this system can also be used for cooling. For this purpose, the ice storage is used directly as heat sink (“cold source”), so that no additional chiller is needed.