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• How does the SunHeater alleviate this problem?

  Luis Parada • 05/01/2022 at 10:28 • 0 comments

  Considering:

  • The use of infrared as an energy-efficient heating solution.
  • Today’s low end-to-end low-carbon-electricity-based heating system efficiency.
  • Today’s solution high RUN cost (due to energy cost and energy-intensive need for heating).

  Our proposition is to:

  • Directly use solar radiation (infrared) energy as a heating solution through a parabolic capture system (all spectrum, especially infrared).
  • Captured directly “onsite”, which increases end-to-end system efficiency (no transport).
  • Guided and propagated inside the house.

  We will call this system further in the document: SunHeater

  
  

  Evaluating the interest of the SunHeater

  Taking as an example the city of Toulouse (South France).

  • Input data:
    • The average recommended power (per m2) with today’s most efficient electricity-based heating solution
    • The amount of available radiation (source for the year of 2020)
    • A SunHeater end-to-end solution efficiency hypothesis of 80>#/span###

  • Use Case (specifications)
    • A space to heat of 30m2
    • A target of 100% heating needs coverage from the month of March

  The analysis gives the following results (formulas available on the excel file joined to the project):

  Annexed documents in project files « Monthly in-plane irradiation for tracking system.pdf » and « SunHeater System Dimensioning.excel » data source « Monthly in-plane irradiation for tracking system.csv ». Source: https://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvg_tools/en/

  Source 2 (Recommended power): https://www.foxof.com/nombre-et-puissance-radiateurs-electriques/

  Analysis output:

  • The diameter of the required parabol would be = SQUARE(INPUT in m2 / PI)*2 = 1,864988863 meters
  • As for many sun-based solutions dimensioning to meet winter needs induces a production excess on summer (excess witch can also be used for other needs)

• Why The SunHeater ?

  Luis Parada • 05/01/2022 at 10:24 • 0 comments

  Biggest energy consumption in EU !

  In 2019, in Europe, 63.6% of the house's energy consumption was related to space heating, 24.2% was covered with non-renewable natural gas and 17.7% from renewable and wastes, meaning resources burning (wood / waste)

  Source: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Energy_consumption_in_households

  
  

  Today’s solutions:

  In parallel to this fact, today most heating solutions rely on the physical principle of convection which occurs when heat is carried away from the heated element via moving air. 

  However, convection is not the most efficient solution for space heating, the phenomenon of heat stratification in the air induces energy over-consumption without managing to homogeneously heat the space, which brings a bad thermal comfort.

  Temperatures on ­°Celcius

  Space not homogenously heated. T on ­°Celcius

  Space homogenously heated. T on ­°Celcius

  Heating and energy:

  Whatever the solution, heating is an energy-intensive activity.

  As showed earlier, most of the heating energy source comes from combustion (gas, wood, waste) because they produce an important amount of energy which can be directly used for heating, but at the same time they release greenhouse gases.

  We’ve also seen that today’s most energy-efficient electricity-based heating solution (low carbon or not depending on electricity production) are the radiation heaters.

  However, this solution is still energy-intensive relatively to other uses of electricity in a household. To get the magnitude of the energy required to heat a space we can rely on the recommended power (Watts/m²) for heating:

  
  Values for the lowest temperature of the year for Paris (According to historical records). Notion defined by the norm NF EN 12831 called “température de base extérieure”. A.h.t = Average heating temperature. Source : https://www.foxof.com/nombre-et-puissance-radiateurs-electriques/

  Even though these values appear as “low”, a 30m² space would require (to simplify we will use 80 Watts/m² as the average): 30 m² * 80 Watts/m² = 2.4 kWatts of electrical power.

  Considering a program of 5 hours heating per day, the monthly energy consumption for such space would be 2.4kWatts * 5 hours * 31 days = 372 kWh.

  In order to have a global end-to-end system efficiency we must consider the end-to-end electricity use efficiency, from production to the electrical outlet: 34,22% in Europe.

  (1)For wind power these values represent the % of availability of the production

  Annexed documents in project files « SunHeater System Dimensioning.excel »section “Electricity Prod Efficiency”

  Source 1: https://www.irdeme.org/Bilan-quantitatif-des-modes-de-production-d-energie-electrique-1619

  Source 2: https://www.connaissancedesenergies.org/questions-et-reponses-energies/electricite-combien-selevent-les-pertes-en-ligne-en-france#:~:text=Sur%20le%20r%C3%A9seau%20de%20transport%20d'%C3%A9lectricit%C3%A9%2C%20le%20gestionnaire%20RTE,(20%20TWh%2Fan).

  Source 3 : https://www.connaissancedesenergies.org/le-mix-electrique-de-lunion-europeenne-en-2020-220218

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