Thermal central Equipments for

heat and cooling generation

Heaters, boilers, heat pumps.
Chillers (Compression and absorption)
Storage tanks and thermal storage systems
Distribution circuits and fluids used.
used
...

Heaters
Classified by the heating system:
Electrical heaters.
Boilers to generate steam or hot water (water
heaters)

Heat pumps (using electricity or an engine).

Solar panels (usually coupled with another heater).

Classified byy the fuel used:

Natural gas, biomass, Diesel,

Classified by the fluid generated:

Air, Thermal fluid (oil), steam, hot water, mixture.

Classification of boilers
Fire or water tube Depending on the fluid circulating in the
tubes.

Hot water or steam generators (low, medium, high pressure).

Only for DHW or also for ambient heating.
Conventional or condensing.

Fire tubular

Water tubular

Condensing boiler
Flue gas exhaust at
low temperature <70C
Beware of condensates!

Wall mounted
condensing
water heater

Water heater and

condensation unit
for heat recover

Multijet boiler with

integrated condensing
unit for heat recover.

Wood burning equipment

Wood burning equipment is divided in:
Water heating or air heating equipment

10 kW
water heater
Pellets under grate fired
gas tubular water heater

Air
distribution
is limited

Use of wood logs or pellets

Safety issues
Boiler (circuit pump, relief valve, water feed).
Lower and upper limit of water level and pressure
Pilot flame (to guarantee ignition).
ignition)
Control of water temperature according to use.

Fuel circuits (Cut off)

Control pressure limits of gaseous or liquid fuels

Solid fuels
Fuel storage
Loading system (not automatic with logs)
Humidity level of wood.

Boiler efficiency
The main energetic parameter of the boiler/water heater is
its efficiency that is the ratio between the usefull heat
(gained by water) and the heat supplied by the fuel (based
on the
th lower
l
h
heating
ti value
l ffor th
these equipments).
i
t )
The boiler efficiency can be calculated by methods:
QUseful
Direct
Indirect 1 Losses

method
fuel LHV
m fuel LHV
m
method
The main losses in the indirect method are due to:
Sensible heat in the flue gases.
gases
Proportional
Incomplete combustion (CO, Carbon In Ash, fuel leak) to fuel flow.
Heat loss to the environment.
The heat recovered in the condensation of vapour in the flue gases is
an extra gain compared to LHV so the efficiency may be larger than 1
but never higher than the ratio between the HHV and LHV.

Influence of parameters
Flue gas temperature has a direct
impact on boiler efficiency and is used
in simple graphs valid for specific
fuels

Losses in flue gases

L

Area of
maximum
efficiency

Losses in
unburned

Losses in
sensible heat

Sensibble heat loss in fraction (% HHV)

Excess air is one of the main

parameters to regulate the boiler
and combustion efficiency

Flue gas
temperature (oC)

The boiler efficiency in general is

larger with lower water temperature.

Oxygen (%)

Carbon dioxide (%)

Excess air coefficient

Steam generators
Steam generators is the designation of very large
boilers in industry (including electricity production)
but is also the name given to small steam
generators used for humidification of air streams
by steam.

In small steam generators the water

quantity is small and not circulating

Small steam generators include

those used in coffee machines,
ironing systems, vacuums, etc.

Heat pumps
Most often based on compression cycles, use the heat
rejected in the condenser at temperatures up to ~ 60C.
The higher temperatures use two cascade cycles.
The compressor of the system can be supplied by
electricity or an engine.
Heat pumps can also work as refrigerators if reversible.

Dual purpouse heat pump

(Alltherma from Daikin)
Daikin uses for domestic applications two heat pumps
in series to take heat from the outside air:
HP to heat water to ~35C for space heating in houses
HP using part of this heat to heat DHW to 65-80C
The two heat pump in cascade have a combined COP
(Coeficient of Performance) of 3 2,5
respectively for the 65 - 80C.

Heated medium
Heat pumps may heat air directly, in direct refrigerant
systems or water for direct use or to distribute heat to air.
A cold medium is needed to supply heat to the
compression cycle that can be cold water or air
air.
Ocasionally the refrigeration may be used in other
applications (as in the unit shown from Trane)

RTWD (Trane)

30RQ (Carrier)

Colling equipment
As for heaters it can be used to generate cold air,
water or a mixture to remove heat from applicatons.
The central units used to generate cold water are
named chillers and may work in one of the principles:
Compression (reverse of heat pump) with an
efficiency given by Qcold/Workcompression (EER/COP)
Absorption (to produce cold water) with an
g
by
y Qcold/Qheat source .
efficiencyy given
The absorption chiller uses heat at a higher temperature
(generator) to pump heat from a lower temperature to an
upper temperature. This heat and the heat required in the
absorver has to be rejected to the environment.

Absorption Chiller Theory

Compression chillers cooled

by water or air (in condenser)

Cooling of water from

condensers
Water cooled chillers require the cooling of the water
in refrigeration
g
towers.

The refrigeration cooling towers use forced

convection and the evaporative cooling effect to
transfer the heat to the air. The working temperature
of water may be a problem for Legionella formation.

Absorption Chiller using LiBr-Water

In this cycle, water is the working fluid which changes its
vaporisation temperature/pressure relation with different
fractions of LiBr salt dissolved.
There are systems with a single or double effect the later with a
better efficiency but requiring heat at a higher temperature.
Mechanical work required by pumps is low (<1%)
Single effect cycle:
TGenerator ~ 85C; A~0.6

Double effect cycle:

TGenerator ~ 120C; A~1.1

Single stage absorption chiller

A single stage absorption chiller is

used at CGD building using
heat from solar panels.
Schematic representation Trane Horizon

Integrated units
Absorption chiller usually work at relatively constant
regime and therefore are often combined with
compression chillers, also because the later may produce
lower temperatures (~4C) than the first (~8C).
Absorption chillers may use waste heat from engines.

Refrigeration
to ers
towers

Absorption chiller
using engine flue
gases waste heat

Gas fuelled engine and

compression chiller.

10

Water distribution

Storage tanks and heaters in

tanks

Support of solar
panels heaters
use small tanks
with heaters.

11

Thermal inertia and storage

As the heating or cooling requirements and its cost of
generation changes considerably during the day, in
some cases it is interesting to store thermal energy.
The use of storage increases the thermal inertia of the
installation and reduces the peak power capacity of the
thermal energy generation system.
For absorption chillers producing cold water at constant
load storage is important.
The use of water systems always has larger inertia than
air and it depends on the storage as well as on the
water quantity in the installation.
The higher inertia requires also larger start up times.

Thermal Energy Storage

Energy storage is done using sensible heat:
In water or other thermal fluid used
Using solid materials (e.g. Morse-Trombe wall)

or phase
h
change
h
h
heat:
t
Solidification/fusion of water or aquous solutions
Solid/fusion of mixtures with pre-defined fusion temperature.
Use of solids that change their cristaline structure (solid/solid)

The theoretical capacity is the amount of energy to perform

g of states: Q
Qt = M ((hTS hTI)
the change
M is the mass of substance and hTS and hTI are the
enthalpies at the maximum and minimum temperatures.
For phase change the difference can be hSL or equivalent.

The storage efficiency is the ratio between the real

capacity compared to the total and is around 90%.

12

Acumulao sensvel
Domnio de
Temperatura
Temperat
ra

M t i l
Material

Aluminio
Ferro fundido
Tijolo refractrio
gua glicolada (50%
C2H4(OH)2 + 50% H2O)

Sal ((50% NaNO3 +

50% KNO3)
Granito
Sdio lquido
gua

Massa
especfica
3

Calor
especfico
o

Densidade
energtica
3 o

( C)
max. 660
max. 1150

(kg/m )
2700
7200
2100 - 2600

(J/kg C)
920
540
1000

(kJ/m C)
2484
3889
2100 - 2600

0 - 100

1075

3480

3741

220 - 540

1733

1550

2686

100 - 760
0 - 100

2400
750
1000

790
1260
4180

1896
945
4180

Luis Roriz, 2008

Acumulao latente
T fuso
o
( C)
Parafinas *
10-71
Outros compostos orgnicos
cido frmico
8
cido actico
17
cido mirstico
54
cido palmtico
62
Fenol
41
P-Diclorobenzeno
53
Nitronaftaleno
57
Azobenzeno
68

Massa esp.
3
Liq (kg/m )
750-830
C. qumica
CH2O2
C2H4O2
C14H28O2
C16H32O2
C6H5OH
C6H4Cl 2
C10H7NO2
C12H10N2

Compostos inorgnicos
gua
0
xido de fsforo
24
Csio
28
Glio
303
Nitrato de sdio
307

C. qumica
H2O
P4 O 6
Cs
Ga
NaNO3

Material

Luis Roriz, 2008

Massa esp.
3
Sol (kg/m )
785-930
3
(kg/m )
1220 (liq)
1266 (sol)
862 (sol)
853 (sol)
1070 (sol)
1250 (sol)
1220 (sol)
1090 ((sol))
3

(kg/m )
1000 (liq)
1880 (sol)
5900 (sol)
2260 (sol)

Calor fuso
(kJ/kg)
190-255
(kJ/kg)
247
273
199
164
120
121
103
121
(kJ/kg)
333
64
15
80
199

* CnH2n+2 com n>15

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Use of ice storage and

comparison to water

banco de gelo convencional

banco de gelo fundente

For the same storage volume, ice has 15 times more capacity
than water (Ice has a smaller efficiency/part of volume liquid)
The efficiency of cooling generation is smaller with ice due to
the lower temperature necessary and the formation of ice
around tubes that decreases heat transfer. Further there are
higher heat transfer losses from the environment.

Other substances
Parafines: CnH2n+2 with n>15
Fat acids: CH3(CH2)2nCOOH
Salts (using euctetic points)
CaCl2.6H2O (30C) and Na2SO4.10H2O (32C)
There are several suppliers of phase change materials
to be used at temperatures from negative up to 120C.
There is interest in using alternative fluids to water,
namely to avoid freezing in the circuits:
Solar thermal systems at night in winter.
Climatization systems with equipment outside when stopped.
Other systems for refrigeration applications (not climatization).

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Brine (Salts e.g. of NaCl; CaCl2)

The phase change temperature
depends on the salt concentration
The
Th mixture
i
may have
h
one or
more euctetic points (where it
behaves as a pure substance).

Weight percent NaCl

Glycol water mixtures

Glycol has two hydroxil groups (CH2)n (OH)2 while alcool
CnH2n+1(OH) has only one.
glycol
y
used and is
Ethanediol ((CH2)2((OH))2 is the main g
miscible with water in all proportions.
Its fusion temperature is -13C, but when mixed with
water with mass fraction larger than 25% it has lower
fusion temperature with minimum at 70% of -51C.
It is harmful if swallowed and eye irritant so there is a

tendency to replace it by propanediol that is much

less harmful and with a mass fraction of 60% leads to
fusion temperature of -51C.
Both are combustible but not all properties are
studied for the later.
Ethanediol inflamation temperature of 111C.

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