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The SEEC Energy Store with Energy Modules
There are many good reasons to use the SEEC Energy Store with Energy Modules. We deliver a complete solution with an energy store and Energy Modules containing heat pumps with peripherals and operation and control equipment.
By storing energy instead of producing it anew, consumption can be reduced dramatically. The reduction depends on many factors, but can be up to 80 % under favorable conditions.
Reduction of energy consumption leads to reduction of cost. Compared to traditional solutions the cost for large buildings, including financial costs during the depreciation period, can be reduced by up to 40 %, or even more under favorable conditions.
The main winner of the SEEC Energy Store is the environment. Apart from the electricity used by the heat pumps and peripherals, no other energy is needed. If this electricity is produced in an environmentally friendly way, the environmental impact will be minimal.
SEEC’s so called Energy Store Principles
Containing the energy in the energy stores has been a big problem and the losses have been substantial. After extensive development, SEEC has found solutions to this problem and has refined the technology in a number of points, SEEC’s five so called Energy Store Principles:
1. Balanced Energy Store
The temperature in the store is varied around the natural ground temperature. In summer, it rises to around 3 degrees above the natural ground temperature and in winter to around 3 degrees below. Thus, if the natural ground temperature is 8 degrees, the temperature in the store will vary between 5 and 11 degrees. In winter, heat pumps are used to raise the temperature sufficiently for heating the building. Summertime, the temperature is sufficient for cooling directly, without using heat pumps.
2. Low Temperature System
The energy gain of a heat pump is referred to as Coefficient of Performance, COP. If a heat pump uses 1 kWh electrical energy and COP=4, it will give off 4 kWh of heat energy. By using large surface radiators for heating, the energy saving is maximized. The temperature of the water used for heating can be lowered. The smaller the temperature increase required from the heat pumps, the higher the COP, leading to further energy savings. In the corresponding way, the water used for cooling should have as high temperature as possible to maximize the energy saving. In modern buildings, 30 degrees can be used for heating and 14-16 degrees for cooling.
3. Cost Effective Energy Balancing
For an energy store to work optimally, the energy discharged over a year must balance the energy charged. If the waste heat from the summer cooling does not correspond to the heating need of the winter, the store will be out of balance. SEEC solves this problem in a cost effective way by using collectors. These are used summertime if the store needs additional heating and in the winter if it needs cooling. Using collectors, very large amounts of energy can be charged or discharged at very low costs.
4. Intelligent Management and Control Using Open Standard
The temperature of the boreholes is measured to manage and control the store. Charge and discharge of energy is controlled for the boreholes according to season and the building’s need for heating or cooling. The store’s total energy is computed continuously. Management and control of the store is integrated with management and control of heat pumps and peripherals. The management and control systems are based on open standards, e.g. Linux, and can be controlled remotely over the Internet. The SEEC Energy Store uses a number of newly developed methods for management and control of energy stores.
With the SEEC Energy Store and Energy Modules you get the energy solution of the future today!
About Energy Stores
The development of energy stores gained momentum during the seventies. Since then, interest from authorities and property owners has varied in pace with changes in energy prices. The energy stores that have been built have mainly been for research and development.
Since mid nineties, investments in heat pumps that draw energy from air, ground or mountain has become profitable. As a result, today there are more than 1 000 000 installations world wide. Around one forth of these are to be found in Sweden. Since heat pump technology makes up a central part of energy stores, these have also become profitable.
An energy store can be described as a series of concentric boreholes. The number of boreholes and their required depth depends on how much energy needs to be stored, which in turn depends on how much energy is needed for heating in the winter.
Cooling produces waste heat. Normally, the waste heat is dispersed through fans on the outside of the building. With the SEEC Energy Store the waste heat is used to heat the ground that surrounds the boreholes. If the need for cooling is big, the energy from the waste heat is usually sufficient for the winter heating. If not, collectors can be used. Collectors are fluid filled pipes that are dug into the ground, so called ground collectors, or other types of collectors, e.g. air collectors. As the sun heats the ground, the fluid in the collectors is heated. This heat is used to further heat the ground around the boreholes.
By end of summer the ground around the boreholes has been warmed up. During winter, energy is led from the store through heat pumps to the heating system of the building. If the store has been properly dimensioned, no more energy is needed to heat the building.
The example above describes how an energy store can be used in a Northern European type of climate. In warmer climates, such as Southern Europe, the store can be used in the reversed fashion, to save the cold of the winter and use for cooling in the summer.
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