Optimizing solar thermal resurce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Optimizing solar thermal resurce - Essay Example Such cities includes; Oakland 17%, San Franscisco 12% and Porland 10% (Ten top cities in U.S.A for renewable energy) . In his paper (Cleveland) explains how solar energy can be optimized. This paper represents a method of analyzing the financial costs and benefits of solar systems in commercial buildings using a model building. Assumption made are; the house is 30% below ASHRAE 90.1 standards, the owner is interested in investing on thermal technology and wanted to build the most efficient building possible, consideration of natural gases and electricity escalations as alternatives to solar energy. The model house was 50,000 sq feet and cost of building such a house in Calorina is $500,000 to 750,000 with fully installed HVAC system. Energy plus was used to map the building. The inputs for the energy plus simulation included, Raleigh, NC location, u-shaped office building of 50,000 sq ,30% energy savings among others and this led to projection output of heating system capacity 641 kBtu/hr (includes hot water usage), 87 tons of cooling capacity required, annual HVAC electricity use and annual natural gas use, hot water cooling. The model house was used to run 2 cooling scenarios one with traditional HVAC as control building and the other one with traditional cooling system and solar heating and cooling system (solar building).The sizing of thermal loads of absorption chiller was based on information sourced from energy plus and this ensured that it had that same output as HVAC system. The amount of solar thermal energy supplied to heating water, heating space and cooling the space was calculated using RET screen which is able to estimate energy production, savings ,cost, viability and risks of various renewable energy and energy efficient techniques. In order to determine the comparative value of solar heating and cooling system and traditional HVAC system, net present value (NPV) of each system