SHC 2013, International Conference on Solar Heating and Cooling for Buildings and Industry September 23-25, 2013, Freiburg, Germany A simplified design tool for solar DHW systems in multi-family houses with decentralized storages

Abstract Solar DHW systems in multi-family houses is gaining more and more interest in France, where 50% of the solar collectors area installed in 2012 is dedicated to such applications. Among the various designs, systems with decentralized storages installed in each apartment offer significant advantages, such as no DHW loop requirement. Nevertheless, up to now, no simplified design tool was available on the market to calculate the solar gains. Within Scheff project, such a tool has been developed. A general overview of the software as well as the result of the validation procedure is presented within this paper. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer review by the scientific conference committee of SHC 2013 under responsibility of PSE AG. Keywords : Design tool; DHW systems; Multi-family houses; simulation 1. Introduction Market share of solar DHW systems in multi-family houses (SDHW-MFH) is growing in France, where 50% of the solar collector area installed in 2012 is dedicated to such applications. Among the various designs, systems with decentralized storages (also called CESCI in France) installed in each apartment offer significant advantages. As this system technology is relatively new, a research project was set-up in 2010 in order to optimize and to disseminate this technology. Among the various objectives, it was decided to develop a simplified design tool for engineering offices that allows a quick and easy design procedure, and provides the main valuable indicators as outputs.