The BEST-Storage project consortium pays attention to select pilot sites that covered both different dominant climate regions within the EU as well as the different dominant building typologies across the European continent. As a result of this, three real demo cases and one emulated demo with a hardware-in-the-loop have been selected which on top of covering different building typologies and environments, will also test different solutions configurations offering extremely comprehensive testing conditions. Moreover, virtual demo cases are also selected to complement the demo sites with the remaining popular building typologies and climates present throughout Europe.
Demonstration sites
Real demo case N.1
EIBAR, SPAIN
Demo responsible: GIROA-VEOLIA, together with AVAN and TEKNIKER
Type of building: Offices and laboratory building
Type of climate: Oceanic
Built in 2013 with around 8500 m2 of footprint and 28 000 m2 of total useful area, the main building of TEKNIKER is in Eibar within the Gipuzkoa science and technology park. The building energy system has been conceived as a living lab in such a way that it is used as a demo site for validating developments performed by TEKNIKER in energy efficiency in buildings.
GIROA-VEOLIA is a branch of VEOLIA Spain that looks at the improvement of the energy efficiency of the installations of their clients through operation and maintenance. A temporary business association between TEKNIKER and GIROA-VEOLIA signed in 2020 a collaborative operation and maintenance of the installations of the building as well as for validating developments with interest for both entities.
Demonstration action: The slurry PCM-E storage of 9 kWh including the MPC system developed by TEKNIKER, GIROA and AVA will be connected to the production and storage side of the installation operated and maintained by GIROA to bring it to TRL 7. The contribution from TEKNIKER will be on the development of the PCM slurry and the specifications and base design for the set-ups as well as on the model predictive control and its integration into the building energy management system (BEMS). AVA will manufacture large quantities of the PCM slurry. The contribution from GIROA will be based on the detailed design, erection, and operation of the 9 kWh PCM slurry storage and the integration of the MPC into the overall BEMS, which is operated by themselves.
TARTU, ESTONIA
Demo responsible: TREA, together with OST, TECNALIA and NEWTON
Type of building: Single-family house
Type of climate: Continental
The single-family house is located near Tartu, the second-biggest city in Estonia. It’s a common suburban single-family house. It has 141 m2 and it’s built in 2020. Its main structure is a wooden frame, and it has a plate foundation.
Demonstration action: The TCM as well as the VI-water storages integrated into the building energy management system will be demonstrated for heating and DHW applications bringing the systems to TRL 7. In this case, additional solar thermal collectors would have to be supplied and the cooling will not be considered since cooling demands are low and solar irradiation might not be enough in autumn to charge the storage for winter.
Real demo case N.3
THESSALONIKI, GREECE
Demo responsible: CERTH, together with OST, NEWTON and TECNALIA
Type of building: Single-family house
Type of climate: Mediterranean
The Greek demo will be at the Smart Home Digital Innovation Hub at CERTH premises. This building with 316 m2 is shaped as a real residential household and used as rapid prototyping demonstration infrastructure. The house is representative of a single-family, detached residential building and is already equipped with many Internet of Things (IoT), smart home solutions that provide a lot of information about its operational characteristics. It constantly evolves by actively participating as a pilot in different research projects and through collaboration with local, national and cross-border companies. Hence, it can adapt to highly diverse requirements. The existing infrastructure of the building will be extended to incorporate the proposed technologies and software tools.
Demonstration action: The TCM as well as the VI-water storages integrated into the building energy management system will be demonstrated for heating and cooling applications bringing the systems to TRL 7. As the available thermosiphon solar thermal installation is only foreseen to provide DHW, additional solar thermal collectors would have to be supplied. In this case, cooling will be considered demonstrating the most challenging TCM system due to the double use for heating and cooling needed. The TCM will be charged in spring and autumn where solar irradiation will be enough for the specific climate of Greece to provide cooling in summer and heating in winter.
Emulated demo case
SWITZERLAND
Demo responsible: OST, together with TEKNIKER
Type of building: Single-family house
Type of climate: Emulation of Mediterranean conditions
Demonstration action: The smallest of the two hardware-in-the-loop testing infrastructures at OST able to handle up to 10 kW heating and cooling needs will be used to test the PCM slurry supercooling/crystallization and a vacuum insolation water storages coupled with a reversible heat pump and photovoltaics. The complete systems will be demonstrated in a relevant environment at TRL 6. The two storages, the reversible heat pump with all hydraulics and controls will be installed physically in the lab for a power range of 3 kW and at least 9 kWh storage capacity for each storage. The cooling and heating demands and DHW weather data will be emulated following the conditions of a single-family house in the Mediterranean (e.g., Greece demo but adding DHW demands). Similarly, the PV production will be simulated and emulated using the same weather conditions. The system will be tested in an accelerated manner selecting representative days for the summer season. The MPC will be tested using consecutive days on a representative week.
Virtual demo case n.1
HUNGARY
Type of building: Single-family house
Type of climate: Middle European Continental climate
Between the 1950s-1980s around 850 000 Kádár-cube” type single-family houses were built in Hungary using the same recommended plan from a governmental central catalogue. Most of these buildings are in villages, smaller towns, and the suburbs of major Hungarian cities and make up ~20% of the national residential building stock. In the last 20 years, only a small percentage of these buildings have undergone energy renovations, and the government has recognized the need to provide accessible renovation options for these buildings. The typical conditioned area of the building type is around 60 m², built with brick walls and reinforced concrete slabs. In this virtual demo case, the applicability of the different technology scenarios will be tested with a special focus on the affordability of the proposed solutions. The demo case provides huge replication and energy-saving potential with the large quantity of non-refurbished building stock.
Virtual demo case n.2
BELGIUM
Type of building: Terrace house type
Type of climate: Oceanic climate
The terraced house type was selected as a virtual demo case from Belgium, to represent the Oceanic Climate. The typical terraced house, which was built between 1920-1970, has brick walls and poor-performing openings. The typical heated area of this building type is 143 m². This building type was selected to represent terraced buildings in dense urban settings where the energy-saving potential and applicability of the developed solutions can be assessed with the necessity to consider the neighbouring buildings as well.
Virtual demo case n.3
ITALY
Type of building: Apartment block type
Type of climate: Mediterranean climate
The virtual demo case from Italy represents the apartment block type of buildings built between 1920 and 1980. The typical condition of this building type is 2075 m². The typical building structure is brick masonry walls with reinforced concrete slabs. This virtual demo site is selected to be able to assess the effect on the cooling demand of the developed solutions on large multi-family buildings. (Source of photo: TABULA IEE Project Webtool).
