Thermal Storage for CHP

[JohnLloyd]

I know I've been banging on about this for years now, but can you please add thermal storage to the CHP calculation

Without the lag that thermal storage adds to the system we are not correctly modelling peak loads and potential electrical mismatches between the CHP running out-of-hours (to charge the store) when the building's electricity demand has reduced.

[RossThompson87]

I would also like to see this. So often CHP is used with buffer vessels.

We always seem to end up doing our own calculations with a spreadsheet and then playing with the inputs to get the correct result.

Then you end up seeking building control permission to explain yourself.

You can easily end up spending a couple of hours trying to work around this not being an option.

As far as I know the renewables calculations aren't covered by the NCM modelling guide. So could this be changed without BRE / DCLG approval?

Thanks

Ross

[JohnLloyd]

We have the same problem with having to do things in complicated spreadsheets and then 'fudging' the IES settings to give us to the outputs we want.

While I may be oversimplifying this, the code already seems to exist for the thermal storage because thermal storage is used in the solar hot water calculation.

Doing this would also allow us to use the CHP options to more accurately model a biomass boiler with buffer tank in Apache.

[JohnLloyd]

So I was banging on about this in 2010 and I'm still banging on about it now!

Is there a technical reason why you're reluctant to add this to the software? It would undoubtedly enhance the DSM calculation, and with Part L and BREEAM now pushing us towards CHP solutions on a lot (the majority?) of new buildings there's a clear reason to have in the software.

Tell me why you can't do it and I won't still be pestering you in another four years!

[PCully]

Hi John,

Everything has to be developed and sadly this takes time and expertise which is finite. Something like this would of course require a detail thermal model to be researched and then developed so it could be plugged into Apache and then we'd need a little extra development to provide the interface. We have lots of excellent R&D consultants, physicists and software developers here of course but e have an equally large list of demands from different customers across the world and not to mention our partners and manufacturers who all want to get their own products into our software.

Everything that is requested is judged on its own merits before it goes into our development plans and we certainly try to take these request son board as much as possible but we can't do everything.

I can follow this up again in my next feedback list though and see if we can't get a little more progress on it for you, if not maybe I'll not be the one explaining IES processes in 4 years time

Phil

[JohnLloyd]

Thanks for the reply Phil.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, (and I may be completely wrong!), it would appear to me that you've already done the hard bit of researching and implementing a thermal model through the form of your solar hot water options. The solar store should perform in the same way to a CHP thermal store so I'd imagine the bulk of the solar store code could be reused for CHP.

I'd appreciate it if you could revisit this and perhaps reassess the priority of it.

Thanks!

[jholgate]

I would also like to see the addition of a buffer vessel option