Determination of optimum pipe diameter along with energetic and exergetic evaluation of geothermal district heating systems: Modeling and application

This study deals with determination of optimum pipe diameters based on economic analysis and the performance analysis of geothermal district heating systems along with pipelines using energy and exergy analysis methods. In this regard, the Dikili geothermal district heating system (DGDHS) in Izmir, Turkey is taken as an application place, to which the methods presented here are applied with some assumptions. The system mainly consists of three cycles, namely (i) the transportation network, (ii) the Danistay region, and (iii) the Bariskent region. The thermal capacities of these regions are 21,025 and 7975 kW, respectively, while the supply (flow) and return temperature values of those are 80 and 50 °C, respectively.     

Exergoeconomic analysis of the Gonen geothermal district heating system for buildings

This paper presents an application of an exergoeconomic model, through exergy and cost accounting analyses, to the Gonen geothermal district heating system (GDHS) in Balikesir, Turkey for the entire system and its components. This exergoeconomic model is used to reveal the cost formation process and the productive interaction between components. The exergy destructions in the overall Gonen GDHS are quantified and illustrated for a reference temperature of 4 °C. The results indicate that the exergy destructions in the system occur primarily as a result of losses in the cooled geothermal water injected back into the reservoir, pumps, heat exchangers, and pipelines. Total exergy destruction and reinjection exergy of the cooled geothermal water result in 1010 kW (accounting for 32.49%), 320.3 kW (accounting for 10%) of the total exergy input to the Gonen GDHS, respectively. Both energy and exergy efficiencies of the overall Gonen GDHS are also investigated to analyze the system performance, as these efficiencies are determined to be 42% and 50%, respectively. It is found that an increase of the load condition leads to a decrease in the overall thermal costs, which will result in more cost-effective energy systems for buildings.     

Performance and sustainability assessment of energy options for building HVAC applications

In this study, a building with a volume of 351 m³ and a net floor area of 117 m² is considered as a case study with the indoor and exterior air temperatures of 20 and 0 °C, respectively. For the heating applications, four options are studied with (1) a heat pump, (2) a condensing boiler, (3) a conventional boiler and (4) a solar collector, which are driven by renewable and non-renewable energy sources. An energy and exergy analysis is employed to assess their performances and compare them through energy and exergy efficiencies and sustainability index. Energy and exergy flows are investigated and illustrated. Also, the energetic and exergetic renewability ratios are utilized here along with sustainability index. The results show that overall exergy efficiencies of heat pump, condensing boiler, conventional boiler and solar heating systems are found to be 3.66, 3.31, 2.91, and 12.64%, while the sustainability index values for the four cases considered are calculated to be 1.039, 1.034, 1.030 and 1.144, respectively. So, solar collector-based heating system gives the highest efficiency and sustainability index values.     

Evaluating a low exergy heating system from the power plant through the heat pump to the building envelope

This study deals with an exergetic analysis and assessment of a low exergy heating system from the power plant through the ground-source heat pump to the building envelope. The methodology used is based on a pre-design analysis tool, which has been produced during ongoing work for the International Energy Agency (IEA) formed within the Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems Programme (ECBCSP) Annex 37 to increase the understanding of exergy flows in buildings and to be able to find possibilities for further improvements in energy utilization in buildings. The analysis is applied to a room with a volume of 105 m³ and a net floor area of 35 m² as an application place, while indoor and exterior air temperatures are 20 °C and −15 °C, respectively. The heat pump system used for heat production with a maximum supply temperature of 55 °C was designed, constructed and tested in Aksaray University, Aksaray, Turkey. In this context, energy and exergy flows were investigated, while exergy destructions in the overall system were quantified and illustrated. Total exergy input of the system was found to be 7.93 kW and the largest exergy destruction occurred in the primary energy transformation at 5.31 kW.     

Energy and exergy analyses of ice rink buildings at varying reference temperatures

This study deals with energy and exergy analyses of ice rink buildings. An ice rink building with a net area of 648 m², which is considered to be closed type and located in Turkey, is assessed. Based on the capacity of the ice rink area, the refrigeration system consists of two circuits with the same basic system components, where two types of refrigerants R-134A and R-744 (CO₂) are used. Exergy analysis is based on Lowex approach, while the effect of varying reference (dead) state temperatures on the system exergy efficiency is investigated. It includes exergy transmission load, air infiltration load, exergy load room, exergy demand distribution, exergy load generation, total exergy system efficiency and exergy flexibility factor. Total exergy input rate is calculated to be 253.66 kW, while exergy destruction rate is 227.45 kW. The minimum and maximum exergy efficiency values are found to be 1.72% and 19.05% for reference state temperatures of 10 °C and −10 °C, respectively.     

Exergoeconomic evaluation on the optimum heating circuit system of Simav geothermal district heating system

Simav is one of the most important 15 geothermal areas in Turkey. It has several geothermal resources with the mass flow rate ranging from 35 to 72 kg/s and temperature from 88 to 148 °C. Hence, these geothermal resources are available to use for several purposes, such as electricity generation, district heating, greenhouse heating, and balneological purposes. In Simav, the 5000 residences are heated by a district heating system in which these geothermal resources are used. Beside this, a greenhouse area of 225,000 m² is also heated by geothermal. In this study, the working conditions of the Simav geothermal district heating system have been optimized. In this paper, the main characteristics of the system have been presented and the impact of the parameters of heating circuit on the system are investigated by the means of energy, exergy, and life cycle cost (LCC) concepts. As a result, the optimum heating circuit has been determined as 60/49 °C.     

Exergetic modeling and performance evaluation of solar water heating systems for building applications

Solar water heating (SWH) is a well-proven renewable energy technology and has been used in many countries of the world. The basic technology is straightforward, although there are a variety of various types of SWH systems. In the performance assessment of SWH systems, energy analysis (first law) method has been widely used, while the number of the studies on exergetic assessment is relatively low. The SWH system investigated consists of mainly three parts, namely a flat plate solar collector, a heat exchanger (storage tank) and a circulating pump. The main objectives of the present study are as follows, differing from the previously conducted ones: (i) to model and assess SWH systems using exergy analysis (second law) method as a whole, (ii) to investigate the effect of varying water inlet temperature to the collector on the exergy efficiencies of the SWH system components, (iii) to study some thermodynamic parameters (fuel depletion ratio, relative irreversibility, productivity lack and exergetic factor) and exergetic improvement potential, and (iv) to propose and present an exergy efficiency curve similar to the thermal efficiency curve for solar collectors. The system performance is evaluated based on the experimental data of the Izmir province, Turkey, which is given as an illustrative example. Exergy destructions (or irreversibilities) as well as exergy efficiency relations are determined for each of the SWH system components and the whole system. Exergy efficiency values on a product/fuel basis are found to range between from 2.02 to 3.37%, and 3.27 to 4.39% at a dead (reference) state temperature of 32.77 °C, which is an average of ambient temperatures at eight test runs from 1.10 to 3.35 p.m., for the solar collector and entire SWH system, respectively. An exergy efficiency correlation for the solar collector studied was also presented to determine its exergetic performance. It is expected that the model presented here would be beneficial to the researchers, government administration, and engineers working in the area of SWH systems for residential applications.     

Exergetic and sustainability performance comparison of novel and conventional air cooling systems for building applications

This study presents energy and exergy analyses and sustainability assessment of one novel and three conventional types of air cooling systems for building applications. First, effectivenesses of the systems are determined using energy analysis method. Second, exergy aspects of the systems are investigated for twelve different dead state temperatures varying from −5 °C to 50 °C with a temperature interval of 5 °C. The specific exergy flows of humid air, dry air and water, exergy efficiency, and specific exergy destruction are then calculated. Sustainability index is also used to define and discuss the systems’ sustainability aspects. Finally, the results obtained here show that at the dead state temperatures of higher than 23 °C (comfort temperature), exergy efficiency and sustainability of the novel system, which is based on the novel Maisotsenko cycle (M-Cycle), is higher than those of the conventional systems. At a dead state temperature of 50 °C, novel cooling system's exergy efficiency can reach 60.329% as the maximum, while the minimum exergy efficiency of other conventional cooling systems becomes as low as 35.866%, respectively.     

Energetic and exergetic performance investigation of the Bigadic Geothermal District Heating System in Turkey

In this study a comprehensive performance analysis of the Bigadic Geothermal District Heating System (GDHS) in Balikesir, Turkey is performed through thermodynamic assessment in terms of energy and exergy efficiencies. The actual thermal data taken from the Technical Department of the GDHS are utilized in the analysis to determine the exergy destructions in each component of the system and the overall energy and exergy efficiencies of the system for two reference temperatures taken as 15.6 °C for November (e.g., case 1) and 11 °C for December (e.g., case 2). The energy and exergy flow diagrams are clearly drawn to illustrate how much destructions/losses take place in addition to the inputs and outputs. The average energy and exergy efficiencies are found to be 30% and 36% for case 1, and 40% and 49% for case 2, respectively. The key reason as to why the exergy efficiencies are higher is because the heat recovery option is used through the reinjection processes which make use of waste heat. A parametric study is also conducted to show how energy and exergy flows change with the environment temperature. The results are expected to be helpful to researchers and engineers in the area.     

Performance evaluation of a hybrid photovoltaic thermal double pass facade for space heating

This paper presents the performance evaluation of a hybrid photovoltaic thermal (Semi transparent PVT) double pass facade for space heating. The thermal model has been developed by using the energy balance equations of the proposed hybrid photovoltaic thermal double pass facade under quasi-steady state condition. Numerical computations have been carried out for the composite climate of New Delhi, India. An analysis has been carried out to calculate annual energy and exergy gain for the hybrid photovoltaic thermal double pass facade. On the basis of numerical results it has been observed that the annual thermal and electrical energy are 480.81 kWh and 469.87 kWh respectively. The yearly overall thermal energy generated by the system has been calculated as 1729.84 kWh. It is also observed that the room air temperature increases by 5-6 °C than the ambient air temperature for a typical winter day.     

Effect of reference state on the performance of energy and exergy evaluation of geothermal district heating systems: Balcova example

In this paper, we undertake a parametric study to investigate how varying reference temperature from 0 to 25 °C will affect the energy and exergy efficiencies of the Balcova geothermal district heating system (BGDHS) and develop two significant correlations (with a correlation coefficient of 0.99) that can be used for predicting the efficiencies. The exergy losses in the overall BGDHS are quantified and illustrated using exergy flow diagram particularly for a reference temperature of 11.4 °C for comparison purposes. This reference temperature is taken as an average value of the ambient temperatures measured during the past 5 years for the day of 2nd January to reflect the actual situation. The results show that the exergy losses within the system occur mainly due to the losses in pumps, heat exchangers, reinjection sections of the geothermal water back into reservoir and pipeline, and account for 1.75%, 8.84%, 14.20%, and 28.69%, respectively. In addition, we study energy and exergy efficiencies to determine the possibilities to improve the system, and energy and exergy efficiencies of the system are found to be 42.36% and 46.55%, respectively, for 2nd January 2004.     

A parametrical study on the energetic and exergetic assessment of a solar-assisted vertical ground-source heat pump system used for heating a greenhouse

An energetic and exergetic modeling of a solar-assisted vertical ground-source heat pump (GSHP) greenhouse heating system (SAGSHPGHS) for system analysis and performance assessment is presented in this study. Energy (heating coefficient of performance ‘COP’) and exergy efficiencies at various reference and entering water temperatures are also determined. The actual thermal data collected are utilized for the model calculations at different reference temperature values in the range of −0.69 to 25 °C. Furthermore, the performance of a SAGSHPGHS, installed in Solar Energy Institute of Ege University, Izmir, Turkey, is evaluated to show, how energy and exergy efficiencies values change with system. The exergy destructions in the overall SAGSHPGHS are quantified, particularly for a reference temperature of −0.69 °C on 7 January 2004 for comparison purposes. Based upon the measurements made in the heating mode from the 16th of December 2003 till 31st of March 2004, average heating COPs of the GSHP unit and the overall system are obtained to be 2.84 and 2.27, respectively. The best (peak) COP of the GSHP and system were found to be 3.14 and 2.79 on 7 January 2004, respectively. Average exergy efficiency of the system is determined to be 68.11%, while the best exergy efficiency peak values for the GSHP unit and the whole system on a product/fuel basis are obtained to be 76.2% and 75.6%, respectively.     

A combined low temperature water heating system consisting of radiators and floor heating

Space heating load is decreasing in modern Finnish apartments due to lower U-values of the construction, tight envelopes and heat recovery from exhaust ventilation air. This makes it possible to develop a new combined low temperature water heating system with nominal supply/return water temperatures of 45 °C/35 °C. Such a system includes radiators in rooms and floor heating in bathrooms.In this study, the performance of an apartment building is determined by using dynamic simulation. The simulation results for the combined low temperature water heating system are compared with those for three conventional radiator and floor heating systems. The results show that the combined low temperature water heating system performs well and is able to maintain the zones within the required temperature levels. The thermal comfort analysis indicates that the drifts and ramps in operative temperature using the four studied heating systems are within the limits of Ashrae Standard 55-2004.Temperature measurements in a test room are carried out to find the vertical difference of air temperature using two methods: radiator heating and floor heating. These measurements indicate that there is only a small vertical temperature difference that would not produce any significant thermal discomfort.     

Comparison of natural gas driven heat pumps and electrically driven heat pumps with conventional systems for building heating purposes

Electrically driven heat pumps achieve good efficiencies for space heating. If heat pumps are driven directly by a combustion engine instead of an electric motor, losses attributed to the production and transport of electricity are eliminated. Additionally, the use of the combustion engine's heat leads to a reduced temperature difference across the heat pump. This article presents annual efficiencies of these systems and compares internal combustion engine and electrically driven heat pumps in terms of primary energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. Because heat pump performance depends strongly on the heating circuit's flow temperature level, the comparison is performed for air-to-water and geothermal heat pump systems in two cases of maximum flow temperatures (40 °C and 60 °C). These temperature levels represent typical modern buildings with large heating surfaces and older buildings with high-temperature radiators, respectively. In addition to the different heat pump setups, conventional space heating systems are included in the comparison. The calculations show that natural gas-driven heat pumps achieve about the same efficiency and CO₂ emissions as electrically driven heat pumps powered with electricity from the most modern natural gas-fired combined cycle power plants. The efficiency of such systems is about twice that of conventional boiler technologies.     

Energy and exergy analysis of geothermal district heating systems: an application

In this study we present an energy and exergy assessment and modeling of geothermal district heating systems for their system analysis, performance evaluation and optimization. A comprehensive case study is conducted in Balcova geothermal district heating system (BGDHS) in Izmir, Turkey and actual thermal data are collected and employed for analysis. Using actual system data, an assessment of the district heating system performance, energy and exergy efficiencies, and exergy destructions in the system is conducted in this regard. The exergy destructions in the overall BGDHS are quantified and illustrated using exergy flow diagram. Furthermore, both energy and exergy flow diagrams are exhibited for comparison purposes. It is observed through analysis that the exergy destructions in the system particularly take place as the exergy of the fluid lost in the pumps, the heat exchanger losses, the exergy of the thermal water (geothermal fluid) reinjected and the natural direct discharge (hot water distribution losses) of the system, accounting for 1.64%, 8.57%, 14.84% and 28.96%, respectively, of the total exergy input to the BGDHS. For system performance analysis and improvement, both energy and exergy efficiencies of the overall BGDHS are investigated and are determined to be 41.9% and 46%, respectively.     

Exergetic cost analysis of a space heating system

In order to evaluate and improve the design of space heating systems with groundwater source heat pumps (GWHP), common design practices should be examined. In this paper, a GWHP system with common design is studied. The COP of the heat pump is 3.5 at design condition. The system is divided into five subsystems, and exergetic cost analysis is performed on it based on structural theory of thermoeconomics. The results show that the three largest relative exergy destructions and lowest exergy efficiencies occur in power generation and distribution, heat pump, and terminal unit subsystems with relative exergy destructions of 71.2%, 17.1% and 7.02% and exergy efficiencies of 32.8%, 54.8% and 65.6% respectively. The three subsystems also have the largest increases of unit exergetic costs of 2.04 W/W, 2.15 W/W, and 2.73 W/W respectively. Therefore, designers of GWHP space heating systems should pay close attention to heat pump and terminal unit subsystems, especially to the latter one because of its larger increase of unit exergetic cost. The unit exergetic cost of the system final exergetic product is 7.92 W/W. This value can be used to evaluate the system and compare it with others from the viewpoint of energy conservation.     

Estimating exergy prices for energy carriers in heating systems: Country analyses of exergy substitution with capital expenditures

Exergy represents the ability of an energy carrier to perform work and can be seen as a core indicator for measuring its quality. In this article we postulate that energy prices reflect the exergy content of the underlying energy carrier and that capital expenditures can substitute for exergy to some degree.We draw our line of argumentation from cost and technology data for heating systems of four European countries: Austria, Finland, The Netherlands, and Sweden. Firstly, this paper shows that the overall consumer costs for different heating options, widely installed in those countries, are in the same range. In this analysis we derived an overall standard deviation of about 8%. Secondly, additional analysis demonstrates that the share of capital costs on total heating cost increases with lower exergy input. Based on the data used in this analysis, we conclude that for the case of modern cost effective heating systems the substitution rate between exergy and capital is in the vicinity of 2/3. This means that by reducing the average specific exergy input of the applied energy carriers by one unit, the share of capital costs on the total costs increases by 2/3 of a unit.     

A parametric study on the exergoeconomic assessment of a vertical ground-coupled (geothermal) heat pump system

An exergoeconomic model of a vertical ground-source heat pump residential heating system presented in this study uses exergy and cost energy mass (EXCEM) methods. The data obtained from a ground-source heat pump (GSHP) residential heating system installed at the Solar Energy Institute, Ege University, Turkey, are utilized for calculations at different reference temperature values in the range 0–25 °C. The performance of the geothermal heat pump residential heating system is evaluated to indicate how exergoecomic parameter values change with system. We also undertake a parametric study to investigate how varying reference temperatures will affect the exergoeconomic analysis of the GSHP system. A correlation between the ratio of thermodynamic loss rate to capital cost and reference state temperature is developed.     

An exergy application for analysis of buildings and HVAC systems

The paper presents an extended method for exergy analysis of buildings and Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, according to an energy demand build-up model from the building side to the energy supply side. The HVAC systems comprise a thermal energy emission and control system, a thermal distribution system, an electricity distribution system and an energy conversion system. Energy and exergy that are required by a building and a HVAC system are posed into the external part and classified by different forms of energy carriers. The external part is out of the boundary of the study. The method is illustrated with an office building equipped with low-temperature heating and high-temperature cooling systems situated in the Netherlands. Thermal exergy and thermal energy demands of the building and thermal energy and thermal exergy losses occurring in the HVAC systems are discussed. The building and the HVAC systems to be considered meet standard Dutch energy performance regulations. Nevertheless their overall exergy efficiencies are low in both cases (17.15% and 6.81% subsequently). The exergy analysis also pinpoints that the thermal energy emission and control system and the energy conversion system are the main causes of the exergy inefficiencies in the heating and cooling cases, respectively.     

Temperatures and heating energy in New Zealand houses from a nationally representative study—HEEP

The household energy end-use project (HEEP) has collected energy and temperature data from a randomly selected, nationally representative sample of about 400 houses throughout New Zealand. This database has been used to explore the drivers of indoor temperatures and heating energy. Initial analysis of the winter living room temperatures shows that heating type, climate and house age are the key drivers. On average, houses heated by solid fuel are the warmest, with houses heated by portable LPG and electric heaters the coldest. Over the three winter months, living rooms are below 20 °C for 83% of the time—and the living room is typically the warmest room. Central heating is in only 5% of houses. Solid fuel is the dominant heating fuel in houses. The lack of air conditioning means that summer temperatures are affected by passive influences (e.g. house design, construction). Summer temperatures are strongly influenced by the house age and the local climate—together these variables explain 69% of the variation in daytime (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) living room temperatures. In both summer and winter newer (post-1978) houses are warmer—this is beneficial in winter, but the high temperatures in summer are potentially uncomfortable.