Concept and Practical Results for a Solar DHW System in Multi-family Houses with Decentralized Storages

Solar DHW systems in multi-family houses is gaining more and more interest in France, where 50% of the solar collectors area installed in 2012 is dedicated to such applications. Among the various designs, systems with decentralized storages installed in each apartment offer significant advantages, such as no DHW loop requirement. Nevertheless, up to now, very few demo installations have been monitored so as to fully quantify the energy performance. Within SCHEFF project, one demonstration plant has been analyzed in such a way since 2011 in Perpignan (France). A technical presentation of the plant as well as the energy balance over 2 years are presented within this paper, showing the interest of this approach in comparison with a centralized one, especially to decrease back up energy overall consumption.