District Heating for Poorly Insulated Residential Buildings—Comparing Results of Visual Study, Thermography, and Modeling

Abstract

Newer buildings have a lower but smoother profile of indoor temperature, while older buildings are less energy efficient. Sometimes, the indoor temperature is unreasonably high, being 25–30 °C. There are buildings where the indoor temperature does not correlate with the outdoor one. Correction factors adjusting convective heat transfer coefficients are suggested. Energy demand is defined using the rate of heat loss and internal heat gains for the given building construction and design consumption profile. We suggest adjusting the setpoints of the secondary supply temperature to keep indoor and return temperatures lower. Correcting a traditional approach when designing a building may minimize energy consumption by 23.3% and increase the annual performance by up to 14.1%. The reductions of thermal peak resulting from a new type of controller adjustment (for instance, discrete) compared to the traditional operation range from roughly 10 to 30%, respectively. A better understanding of the system operation is a necessary step to switch to fourth-generation district heating (4GDH). This methodology is especially helpful in shaving daily peaks of heat demand. Building envelopes ease the charging, maximum storage capacity, and balance of the given generation and demand profiles, which are key factors in achieving the reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Once the heat demand is covered according to the maximum storage capacity for the given generation and demand profile, fewer efforts to modernize a district heating network are required.