Performance assessment of a solar/biomass hybrid heating and cooling system - results from a single-family house operational environment

Developing a hybrid solar biomass system for space heating and cooling poses several challenges, which are being addressed under the scope of the Hybrid – BioVGE EU-funded project. The main project goal is to integrate solar and biomass heat into a single unit that can operate in heating and cooling mode according to the building’s energy needs. This paper presents the residential prototype concept, technical details, and experimental test results and assessments for the developed residential-scale prototype under an operational environment over the heating season. Results include daily heat energy balance, including production (solar and biomass), storage and consumption (heating and cooling and domestic hot water), subsystems operating times and performance indicators such as solar fraction and solar field-specific heat production. The developed prototype accommodated the user´s heat demand over the entire heating season with high solar shares. Hybridisation with a biomass boiler proved to be crucial to ensure the family’s thermal comfort needs.