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Authors
Giuseppe Medeghini
Partner
Studio Planning
Phil Draper
Technical and
Energy Manager,
Broadgate Estates
Executive summary
This report explores the advantages of a
range of HVAC alternatives. In particular it
demonstrates how heat pumps with heat
recovery can contribute to improving energy
performance and reducing the carbon
footprint of buildings, with a short payback,
thus being a viable technology for energy
cost reduction and for improving the UKs
building environmental impact.
Luigi De Rossi
Energy Analysis & Software
Selection Manager
Climaveneta Spa
Giacomo Favaro
Energy Analysis & Software
Selection Specialist
Climaveneta Spa
Andrea Bertelle
Communications
Manager
Climaveneta Spa
Key Findings
Heat Pumps with heat recovery are a viable solution
for London office buildings offering an integrated
approach to the heating and cooling of the building.
London climate conditions very well suit heat pump
operating limits making gas boilers redundant /
obsolete.
Heat Pumps with heat recovery reduce the buildings
primary energy consumption by 38% and CO2
emissions by 34.6%.
Due to the gradual de-carbonisation of the electric
energy production in the UK, the carbon reduction
achievable with this technology will improve over the
lifetime of the system, achieving savings between
75.4% and 88.4% in 2025.
In new developments simplification of the system
allowed by this technology not only provides the
considerable savings described in this study but
results in reduced installation costs compared to a
chiller and boiler system.
The building
The current HVAC system has mechanical
ventilation and 4-pipe fancoil and is based on:
3 boilers for heating, total capacity
1.380kW
2 air-cooled chillers, total capacity
2.180 kW.
2 AHU with 40,000 m3/h total air
flow, without heat recovery, with
bypass installed and driven
through BMS to decrement the
amount of external air supplied. If
needed, outdoor air is cooled and
dried by means of the cooling coil,
active also in summer.
Operating conditions
Set-point temperature:
Office spaces: 22C
throughout the year.
Core 1 and Core 4: only
heating, with a minimum
temperature of 14C.
Energy consumption has been decreasing in the last few years thanks to a
comprehensive energy reduction plan implemented by British Land predominantly based
on innovative building management policies, and limited refurbishments of existing
systems. The measures already applied in the HVAC system area are:
Bypass on the AHU to allow a certain percentage of partial re-use of returned air.
Inverter on secondary pumps.
New fan coil units with two-way valves installed on the refurbished floors.
Boilers off during Summer months, no post heating supplied to AHU.
Based on that, 2012 energy consumption for chillers and boilers has been analysed. At
a first glance, the data collected enable one to gather relevant information about the
building and its behaviour:
Energy consumption was exceptionally low due to the renovation works on a
substantial section of the building.
Cooling energy demand is high throughout year, due to the glazing that covers most
of the building envelope and to the high internal heat load caused by people and
appliances.
This results in a significant overlay of heating and cooling loads, offering a very
interesting opportunity for energy recovery solutions. These solutions will be the
focus of this analysis.
Thermal energy
consumption [kW/h]
250.000,00
Cooling demand
200.000,00
150.000,00
100.000,00
Heating demand
50.000,00
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Heating system
200
0
-200
-400
-600
-800
-1000
Cooling system
-1200
30/12 24/1
18/2
15/3
9/4
4/5
29/5
23/6
18/7
12/8
6/9
Peak power of fan coil units, AHU and overall peak load of the
HVAC system (fan-coil units and ventilation system).
Overall
Peak load
Heating
Cooling
[kW]
476
1026
[W/m2]
22
48
HVAC system
improvements analysis
The four HVAC system improvement options
considered in the full version of this study are
presented below.
This short paper focuses on the most promising
of them, represented by the adoption of
Climaveneta heat pumps with heat recovery.
The replacement of existing boilers and chillers with high efficiency boilers and high efficiency chillers has been considered. This solution would provide
energy savings versus standard boilers and chillers, but significantly lower than those achievable adopting heat pumps with heat recovery. The initial cost
would be higher than adopting heat pumps with heat recovery, thus this solution has been discarded and is not further discussed in the study.
HEAT RECOVERY
AIR HANDLING
UNITS
HEAT RECOVERY
AIR HANDLING
UNITS WITH
POST HEATING
HEAT RECOVERY
HEAT PUMP
HEAT RECOVERY
HEAT PUMPS
COMBINED
WITH NEW AHU
VS
Heat
Heat
Heat
Primary
energy
Gas
boiler
Building
Heating
Chiller
Cooling
Electric
grid
Power
generator
Building
Primary
energy
Heat pump
Cooling
Renewable
energy
Electric
grid
Power
generator
Primary
energy
The energy analysis of the current system shows that the building is
characterised by a high cooling demand even during the Winter, with
considerable overlay of heating and cooling demand, as is frequently
the case in office buildings.
Replacing existing old chillers and boilers with heat recovery heat
pumps would ensure significant energy savings as it would allow for
energy transfer, recovering energy that otherwise would be wasted on
top of energy saving ensured by Heat Pumps technology.
To properly assess when heating and cooling demand are
simultaneous and therefore predict the exact achievable savings,
a complete simulation has been run, based on the hourly data
gathered from the dynamic model created.
Cooling
Cooling
capacity
Total
power input
[kW]
[kW]
678
229
Heating
EER
2.96
Heating
capacity
Total
power input
[kW]
[kW]
703
205
Cooling + Heating
COP
3.7
Cooling
capacity
Total
power input
Heat recovery
thermal capacity
[kW]
[kW]
[kW]
701
193
883
TER
8.19
Heating & Cooling energy produced, Absorbed energy and % of heat recovery
Heating energy
Cooling energy
Recovered energy
Absorbed energy
250.000
Kwh
200.000
150.000
20,7% 11,6%
14,3% 16,1% 20,7% 19,8% 11,0%
1,6% 0,1% 0,1% 2,9% 15,4%
100.000
50.000
0
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
the heat sink. The amount of energy recoverable could be higher. In fact,
due to lack of thermal storage, the system recovers energy only when
there is a simultaneous demand of heating and cooling, which happens
only for a limited amount of time.
The installation of thermal storages with a capacity of 3-5 thousand litres
would enable storing part of the energy produced for free possible when
demand is not simultaneous to be used later when needed, thus
enhancing the systems performances and increasing the recovery index.
1.800,00
350,00
1.600,00
300,00
1.400,00
250,00
1.200,00
200,00
1.000,00
-38,0%
800,00
600,00
-34,6%
150,00
100,00
400,00
50,00
200,00
0,00
Baseline
New heat
pumps
Baseline
New heat
pumps
Heat Pump with heat recovery: design logic and operating principles
These units can produce
hot and chilled water at
the same time and totally
independently, adapting to
the variable heating and
cooling demands of the
building.
For chillers the energy efficiency ratio is EER and for Heat
pumps COP. Basically TER is the combination of the COP
and EER in one single index. In the case of the
simultaneous, balanced demand of heating and cooling
these units can achieve efficiency corresponding to TER
values between 7 and 8. The superior efficiency is evident
considering that 3,2 is the EER for class A chillers.
TER =
Replacing Boilers with HP requires different heating temperature and distribution systems:
this section assesses feasibility and performances.
The main challenge in
refurbishing the building with
heat pumps is represented by
lower supply heating
temperatures ideal to exploit HP
technology at its peak efficiency.
Further improvements
Compliance with:
Part L of the Building Regulations,
London Plan
Part L requires the heat pump compliance
to the non-domestic building compliance guide.
The HM Governament non-domestic building compliance guide 2010
requires minimum performances for heat pumps, measured with three
metrics - COP, EER and SPF - and referred to standard conditions defined
in the BS EN 14511:2007 Standard
Air conditioners, liquid chilling packages and heat pumps with electrically
driven compressors for space heating and cooling.
10
COP
SPF
EER
2.2
2.5
Minimum requirements
Climaveneta INTEGRA ERACS2-Q heat pumps
3.7 [+68%]
2.5
(1)
In this case SPF would be 3,34. This value exceeds by 36% the standard,
a clear indication of the superior efficiency of this type of units in London
conditions in an office building application.
(2) Note on EER computation
The EER is calculated with an outside temperature of 35C, which is
never reached in London.
The overall aim of the London plan is to achieve an overall reduction in Londons
carbon dioxide emissions of 60 per cent (below 1990 levels) by 2025.
The heat pump technologies considered in the simulation would ensure a carbon
emission reduction of 90%.
The full results are available in the environmental results section.
The guide outlines how the CHP systems must be designed to run efficiently
and be optimally sized to maximise carbon dioxide savings.
For this reason a deep load analysis on each specific case is very important to
validate adoption of such systems.
For 350 Euston Road, CHP was not a viable option because:
Very variable heating loads. From the data available there was no constant
heating demand that could justify the use of CHP
Lack of large district heating systems to connect,
Micro CHP was not viable due to space availability, low energy efficiency
and high management costs for maintenance, local emissions analysis
and management.
The full results are available in the environmental results section.
11
Environmental results
This section presents the results of the comparison of the current system and the new
system based on heat pumps with heat recovery in terms of CO2 reduction over the life
cycle of the systems, based on National Grid 2013 guide "UK Future Energy Scenarios".
Energy diagram
for current chiller + gas boiler system
Gas
boiler
Building
Heat
transfer
Energy diagram
for new system, based on heat pumps with heat recovery
Renewable
energy
Primary
Energy
Power
generator
Electric
grid
Heat
pump
Building
Heat
transfer
12
CCS Coal
Coal
CCS Gas
Gas
Oils/Other
Solar PV
Biomass
Imports
Wind
Nuclear Emission
(gCO2/kWh)
Hydro / Pumped e
Storage/Marine
-18,8%
300,00
250,00
2013
-65,5%
2020
-32.6%
300,00
250,00
200,00
200,00
150,00
150,00
-88.3%
2013
2025
100,00
100,00
2020
50,00
50,00
0,00
0,00
2025
New heat
pumps
Baseline
Baseline
New heat
pumps
CCS Coal
Coal
CCS Gas
Gas
Oils/Other
Solar PV
Biomass
Imports
Wind
Nuclear Emission
(gCO2/kWh)
Hydro / Pumped e
Storage/Marine
-14,7%
300,00
250,00
2013
-58,9%
2020
250,00
200,00
200,00
-24.5%
300,00
-75.1%
2013
2025
150,00
150,00
2020
100,00
100,00
50,00
50,00
0,00
0,00
Baseline
New heat
pumps
2025
Baseline
New heat
pumps
13
Payback
Part L has been used as independent
guidelines for investment evaluation and
simple payback calculation.
Payback period is defined as: the amount of time it will take to recover
the initial investment through energy savings, and is calculated by
dividing the marginal additional cost of implementing an energy
efficiency measure by the value of the annual energy savings achieved
by that measure taking no account of VAT3.
Energy prices are derived from the Department of Energy and Climate
Changes statistical data set of September 2013. Boliers and chillers
installed in the building are at the end of life and need replacement.
Equipment costs
600,000.00
500,000.00
475,000.00
500,000.00
400,000.00
300,000.00
200,000.00
100,000.00
0
Boilers +
Chillers
replacement
14
Heat recovery
heat pumps
Gas cost
Electricity cost
Total
energy cost
Cost reduction
Cost reduction
Simple Payback
[years]
[]
[]
[]
(%)
[]
Baseline
30,678.67
27,446.73
58,125.40
45,194.12
45,194.12
-22%
-12,931.28
1,93
15
Executive summary
This reports explores the advantages of a range of HVAC alternatives
and in particular demonstrates how heat pumps with heat recovery can
contribute to improve energy performances and reduce the carbon
footprint of buildings, thus being a viable technology in improving the
UKs building environmental impact.
In doing so we have considered a real office building situated in 350
Euston road, Regents Place, London. Owned by British Land and
managed by Broadgate Estates, this property has already achieved
significant reduction targets and has been awarded as best-practice
example for energy savings by several independent institutions,
among which CIBSE.
In order to ensure transparency and the quality of results, the
University of Padua Department of Industrial Engineering and
Studio Planning have been involved, respectively as an independent
research institution and as qualified building services engineering
consultancy with great experience in innovative heat pump
applications.
A comprehensive energy model has been developed by the
University of Padua, Department of Industrial Engineering to
16
This research reflects the common commitments of the participant company's institutions to
promote best practices and innovation in energy reduction and sustainability.
Findings are intended to offer valuable support for immediate decision-making about energy
reduction on refurbishments and new developments.
Key Findings
Heat Pumps with heat recovery are a viable solution
for London office buildings offering an integrated
approach to the heating and cooling of the building.
London climate conditions very well suit heat pump
operating limits making gas boilers redundant /
obsolete.
Heat Pumps with heat recovery reduce the buildings
primary energy consumption by 38% and CO2
emissions by 34.6%.
Due to the gradual de-carbonisation of the electric
energy production in the UK, the carbon reduction
achievable with this technology will improve over the
lifetime of the system, achieving savings between
75.4% and 88.4% in 2025.
In new developments simplification of the system
allowed by this technology not only provides the
considerable savings described in this study but
results in reduced installation costs compared to a
chiller and boiler system.
17
Authors
Giuseppe Medeghini
Partner
Studio Planning
Prof. Michele De Carli
Department of Industrial Engineering
University of Padua
Phil Draper
Technical and Energy Manager,
Broadgate Estates
18
Luigi De Rossi
Energy Analysis & Software
Selection Manager
Climaveneta Spa
Giacomo Favaro
Energy Analysis & Software Selection
Specialist
Climaveneta Spa
Andrea Bertelle
Communications Manager
Climaveneta Spa
BRITISH LAND
BROADGATE ESTATE
CLIMAVENETA
Europe, China and India, Climaveneta integrates airconditioning, heating, process cooling solutions with
measurement devices and services in the most
prestigious, complex and demanding projects
worldwide through its global network of branches
and business partners.
PLANNING STUDIO
UNIVERSITA DI PADOVA
19