Investigation of potentials in thermal energy storage for space heating applications in Sweden

Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the economic and energy-efficiency potentials for configuring thermal energy storage (TES) units in Swedish residential buildings. Consequently, the goal was to carry out economical and energy calculations over two applications of coupling two different types of heat pumps with a TES unit (water tank) for providing space heating in a detached single-family house in Stockholm, Sweden during winter time. The heating systems with the heat pumps and TES unit were modeled and simulated using the software MATLAB. Different criteria were applied to govern when the heat pumps would charge the TES unit, for example one criterion stated that the charging process would only occur if the electricity price was lower than a certain value. The results showed that there were savings both in terms of energy and economy for coupling a TES unit with a heat pump, for both types of heat pumps and regardless of criteria selection. The conclusions of the study is that there is potential for configuring TES units with heat pumps in detached single-family households in Sweden. However, since the models in this study included several simplifications, it is necessary to perform similar simulations with wider and more accurate models.