Seasonal energy performance assessment of a hybrid HVAC system driven by solar and biomass energy for space heating and cooling in residential buildings

The H2020 project Hybrid-BioVGE aims to develop a sustainable HVAC system concept for buildings' climatisation entirely based on renewable energy sources. The Hybrid-BioVGE system provides space heating/cooling and DHW production of small- and medium-scale buildings and deploys solar and biomass heat as energy inputs. During the heating period, thermal energy is provided directly by solar thermal collectors and a biomass boiler. The cooling energy demand is met by a thermally-driven ejector cycle based on a Variable Geometry Ejector (VGE), which adjusts its geometry according to two degrees of freedom. A demonstrator of the Hybrid-BioVGE system was designed and installed in a residential building in Porto (Portugal). The demonstrator's seasonal energy performance was assessed numerically by a simulation model implemented in TRNSYS. Simulation results show that up to 98% of the system energy input is provided by renewables during the heating season, with a solar fraction higher than 60%. Conversely, the system energy performance is lower than expected during the cooling season due primarily to the limited performance of the heat rejection loop.