Integrated energy concepts for high performance hotel buildings

Abstract

Integrated energy concepts with heat recovery are not widely applied for hotels, i.e. there is a huge potential to further reduce the specific primary energy demand in this kind of buildings. The development and implementation of such concepts would reduce the cost of ownership and the environmental footprints in the sector, significantly. A combined heat pump and refrigeration system applying carbon dioxide (CO2) and propane is presented for the main and backup system, respectively. Grey Water (GW) usage and thermal energy storage are included in the energy system. A model of the system has been developed and several simulations were carried out in order to investigate the energy demand of a hotel building in several scenarios and ambient temperatures. The integrated energy system can efficiently provide heating, Air Conditioning (AC), Domestic Hot Water (DHW) and refrigeration capacities at various temperature levels. The implementation of thermal storage resulted in both reduction and delay of peak loads.