Thermal energy storage in building integrated thermal systems: A review. Part 1. active storage systems

Abstract

Energy consumed by heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVAC) in buildings represents an important part of the global energy consumed in Europe. Thermal energy storage is considered as a promising technology to improve the energy efficiency of these systems, and if incorporated in the building envelope the energy demand can be reduced. Many studies are on applications of thermal energy storage in buildings, but few consider their integration in the building. The inclusion of thermal storage in a functional and constructive way could promote these systems in the commercial and residential building sector, as well as providing user-friendly tools to architects and engineers to help implementation at the design stage. The aim of this paper is to review and identify thermal storage building integrated systems and to classify them depending on the location of the thermal storage system.

The work was carried out under the framework of the COST Action BISTS TU1205. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement n° PIRSES-GA-2013-610692 (INNOSTORAGE). The authors from the University of Lleida would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation given to their research group (2014 SGR 123). Alvaro de Gracia would like to thank Education Ministry of Chile for Grant PMI ANT1201.