Once built, the Solar House will be used as research stand; the building (materials, structure, design) represents a set of un-changeable variables, while the hybrid thermal system management, for thermal comfort is subject of monitoring and optimization.

The steps to be followed are thus:

• Climatic data acquisition and refining;

• Energy input/output data acquisition and analysis, for the three systems: solar-thermal, heating pump and PV;

Thermal energy calculation, emphasizing the contribution of the renewables:

+ EHP +) = Egas

By careful management of the solar-thermal and heating pump outputs the energy used from the back-up source has to be minimized towards zero.

If not feasible, for extreme winter temperatures (below -25oC) than the re-design of the solar-thermal system and of the heating pump must be considered focusing on the optimal ratio between the two heating sources.

• Electrical energy calculation: AEtotal = Eused — Ereceived = Eused — Epv

The Solar House will host the research laboratories with rather large energy consumers. Thus, regarding the power consumption, the data will give answers to the best use of the renewable energy in the field climatic conditions.

The use of power control management systems in reducing the global energy consumption represents a further development step.

The initial sizing, based on software use, of the solar-thermal and heating pump systems considered all the materials and design data. The research must also give answers to the questions related to the use of modelling software: the degree of reliability of the simulated data vs. the concrete measurements and the consequences at technical, functional and financial levels, when adapting the design to concrete climatic data.

2. Conclusion

The integrated use of solar-thermal, heating pump and solar PV systems can support the low energy building concept, for residences with an adequate architecture. The paper presents the application of this concept in the Solar House in the Centre Product Design for Sustainable Development, Transilvania University of Brasov. The Solar House acts as a research stand and allows design optimisation. The research opens opportunities for various combinations of the three renewable energy systems, according to the beneficiaries needs and adapted to specific climatic conditions.

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