Solar Local District Heating Module

for T*SOL Expert

The solar local district heating module was developed within the framework of the Solar Thermal 2000plus Programme (Solarthermie 2000plus) in partnership with ZfS-Rationelle Energietechnik GmbH. This tool now makes it possible to simulate and design local district heating systems supported by solar energy. Building on the experience of ZfS-Rationellen Energietechnik GmbH, the most important system types (in respect of network structure, the system applications in the buildings connected to the network and the integration of the solar system) are illustrated in T*SOL Expert’s local district heating network.

Experienced T*SOL users will be in a position, without any special training, to work with the programme and present the results, as the solar local district heating module mostly consists of existing components and the new components were developed within the framework of the T*SOL Expert concept.

The solar local district heating module includes the following features:

Up to six collector arrays can be defined that are connected to the power house via a freely-definable solar network. The power house consists of a buffer tank and the boiler system in three types:

Bivalent buffer tank with integrated auxiliary heating as a boiler buffer (see Example 1)
Monovalent buffer tank with serial boiler connection (see Example 2)
Monovalent buffer tank with secondary boiler buffer tank (see Example 3)

Via a freely-definable local district heating network, it is possible to connect the power house with up to six heat transfer stations, which are also available in three basic types:

Heat transfer station system for DHW stations (see Example 2)
Tank loading system (see Examples 1 and 2)
Tank loading system with recooling and thermal disinfection (see Example 3)

Each heat transfer station includes central space heating supply.

The validation of the programme was carried out by ZfS-Rationelle Energietechnik GmbH. The TRNSYS simulation of solar networks from the Solar Thermal 2000 Programme served as the reference for this. By comparing the programme results it was possible to determine that the TRNSYS and T*SOL Expert results corresponded well.

With the solar local district heating module it is possible to variably define the corresponding system configurations (examples follow):

Example 1 Power house characterised by a bivalent buffer tank with integrated auxiliary heating as boiler buffer

Example 2 Power house characterised by a monovalent buffer tank with serial boiler connection

Example 3 Power house characterised by monovalent buffer tank with secondary boiler buffer tank