Parametric Analysis of a Solar Heating and Cooling System for an Italian Multi-Family House

In this paper a solar heating and cooling (SHC) system composed of a flat-plate solar collector array, a hot water storage tank, a single-effect LiBr-H2O absorption chiller, a cold water tank, a cooling tower and an auxiliary gas-fired boiler was considered. The solar heating system was designed and modelled to satisfy the requirements for space heating, domestic hot water as well as space cooling. The system operates to serve an Italian multi-family house located in Naples (south of Italy). This study was performed by using the dynamic simulation software TRNSYS considering the transient nature of the building and occupant driven loads. The performance of the solar heating and cooling system was analyzed upon varying: (i) solar collectors area, (ii) size of both the hot water tank and (iii) cold water tank. Finally, the performance of the optimized SHC system was compared, from energy, environmental and economic points of view, with those associated to a conventional system composed of a natural gas-fired boiler and an air-cooled water electric chiller fed by the national electric grid in order to evaluate the potential benefits of the proposed system in comparison to a conventional system.