Distributed heating and cooling network
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing district heating systems face inefficiencies and variability in meeting heating and cooling demands across different apartments in a building, as they rely on a single heat source and are not adaptable to changing temperature requirements, leading to suboptimal energy use and increased pollution.
Innovation Solution
A distributed heating and cooling network with independently operable heat pumps and cold emitters coupled to a common liquid loop, allowing for flexible operation in heating and cooling modes, with heat pumps extracting heat from or delivering heat to the loop as needed, and cold emitters extracting heat from rooms to transfer it to the loop, optimizing energy use based on individual apartment requirements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a single heat pump is connected to a single source to provide heating, then the system structure is simple, but the system cannot adapt to varying heating and cooling demands of different apartments
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the heating and cooling provision into separate independent units: heat pumps for heating and cold emitters for cooling. Each apartment can independently activate only the units it needs, allowing adaptation to varying demands without requiring a complex integrated system for each apartment.
Solution Approach 2:
The common liquid loop serves multiple functions simultaneously: it acts as a heat source for heat pumps needing heating and as a heat sink for cold emitters needing cooling. This multi-functional infrastructure supports both heating and cooling operations across different apartments without requiring separate dedicated systems.
2Loss of energy
If heat pumps and cold emitters are independently coupled to a common liquid loop, then energy efficiency is improved through load balancing, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple heat pumps and cold emitters from different apartments are merged into a single shared infrastructure - the common liquid loop. This allows their thermal loads to be combined and balanced, where excess heat from one apartment can offset cooling demands in another, improving overall energy efficiency while sharing the complexity across the building rather than duplicating it in each apartment.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If a centralized district heating system is used, then pollution control is improved, but the system cannot meet individual apartment cooling requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the thermal management function by separating heating (via heat pumps) and cooling (via cold emitters) into independent operable units. This allows individual apartments to activate only cold emitters when cooling is needed, providing the versatility to meet individual cooling requirements while maintaining the centralized infrastructure for pollution control.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution enables efficient balancing of heating and cooling loads across the network, reducing energy requirements and improving efficiency by maintaining the common liquid loop at optimal temperatures for heat transfer, enhancing the performance of both heating and cooling operations.
Implementation Method 1
heat pumps that selectively extracts heat from the common liquid loop to deliver heat to the apartment
Implementation Method 2
cold emitter that is independently coupled to the common liquid loop and whose operation can be used to extract heat from the apartment and deliver that heat to the common liquid loop
Data Source
AI summary
A distributed heating and cooling network is described. In one aspect a distributed heating and cooling network used in a district heating architecture is described.