Solar Energy Storage - Critical Success Factors for Passive Houses in Ireland: World Renewable Energy Congress XI

This paper demonstrates that Ireland is potentially the best country in Europe for solar assisted space heating, particularly when seasonal solar energy storage is combined with the exceptionally low space heating demand of Passive Houses. The performance of a real Passive House with a Seasonal Energy Store is examined and presented.
The usefulness of Solar Space Heating is a function of the amount of space heating required and it’s pattern. This is more important than absolute solar radiation. Thus a country such as Malta, with high solar radiation and a warm climate, paradoxically benefits from a relatively low annual solar saving. A city such as Dublin, has a high solar saving given that (1) a high proportion of it’s heating load falls outside the traditional winter months and (2) the heating load is small due it’s maritime climate.
The Critical Success Factors(CSFs) for a real Passive House with an aqueous Seasonal Energy Store are identified and discussed, including climate, solar yield matching with heating demand, optimisation of both the solar energy storage and the heating system, and finally costs. The performance of an installation in Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, is analysed.