Creative Commons

This dissertation was written as a part of the MSc in Energy Systems at the International Hellenic University. Its purpose is to evaluate solar combi plus systems in Greek residential buildings, providing in this way a step towards nearly zero energy buildings. The performance of a solar combi plus system for a typical three floor residential building located in four cities (Heraklion, Thessaloniki, Athens, Kastoria) is evaluated. TEE KENAK Software is used for calculating the building’s heating and cooling requirements. These requirements are used in F-Chart method for the initial dimensioning of the system (size of the collector and volume of the tank) for both selective flat plate collectors system and evacuated tube collectors system. The results indicate that the major design parameter is the collector area and that for a given collector area, higher solar fractions can be achieved from evacuated tube collectors. Moreover, Transol was used for the dynamic simulation of the system. The system is composed of a Li-Br absorption chiller, selective flat plate collectors and a gas condensation boiler backup system. The power of both the absorption chiller and the back up boiler is selected so as to cover the peak heating and cooling loads of the building, which are calculated by Elite Software. The results obtained from the simulation system indicate that solar combi plus system can contribute at a large percentage to the reduction of fossil fuel consumption in residential buildings. Finally, for the completion of this dissertation the contribution of Dr Martinopoulos Georgios was valuable and I would like to thank him for his useful guiding and scientific support.