Thermodynamic analysis of a hybrid energy system using geothermal and solar energy sources with thermal storage in a residential building

Residential buildings in Canada require remarkable heating loads in the winter. Many homeowners potentially consider more cost effective and environmentally-benign solutions, including solar energy systems, in order to replace fossil fuels. However, this might not be efficient because many cities are exposed to minimum solar radiation resulting in large surface area of solar panels. Therefore, a hybrid energy system is designed to combine five photovoltaic thermal solar panels, a 300-m geothermal loop, and 9463.53-kg water of phase change material thermal battery storage for a residential building of 325m(2) total floor space in the city of Oshawa, Canada. The building has maximum heating and cooling loads of 13.8 and 8.7 kW, respectively. A thermodynamic analysis is applied to the system in January and the whole year. It was found that the solar panels can supply thermal energy and electrical power of 8 and 50W, respectively, in January, while the geothermal and thermal storage energy can provide 16.8 and 9 kW over the year, respectively. The hybrid system requires an additional heating load of 1.85kW from the furnace. The overall energetic and exergetic coefficient of performance of the system are estimated to be 54.58% and 3.34% in the winter and 42.6% and 4.47% in the summer, respectively.