Study on the demand response potential of an actively ventilated building: Parametric and scenario analysis

Abstract The exploration of the thermal energy storage potential of building thermal mass is an important and economic means to increase the flexibility of energy use in buildings. Feasible ways to increase the flexibility characteristic, however, are still rare. In this study, the energy consumption and thermal performance of a building with a novel ventilated electric heating floor were investigated through a simplified thermal network model, which was validated by on-site measurement. Aimed at analyzing the performance of the building in different energy systems, multi-energy sources were assumed to supply power to the heating system, including a common power grid and an independent residential wind turbine. The impact of five parameters was simulated, including the floor thickness, the diameter and the distance of air ducts, the ventilation mode and the ventilation rate. To reduce the number of simulated cases, the orthogonal testing method was adopted. Based on the goal of reducing energy consumption from the power grid, increasing consuming wind power and improving thermal comfort, the best structural parameters of the floor were obtained. In traditional systems, it is found out that the ventilated floor with these structural parameters can maximally reduce the heating energy consumption by 46.3% when the fan is on throughout the period. In the hybrid energy system, the consumption of energy in the power grid is also reduced, but the wind power consumption is not increased with the ventilation rate under the set operational rules. The thermal comfort, however, is significantly improved by ventilation.