[Equest-users] PV inverter heat?

Fri Mar 3 14:42:13 PST 2017

Man,  you guys got my gears turning on this one.

There is apparently a BIPVT system where the airgap behind the PV panel is an air enclosure that builds up heat which can, in turn, be used to heat the building (or aid in the heat recovery process).

Perhaps at some point they will design these inverters with an optional manifold that could exhaust the waste heat to a small diameter duct that could tie into a BIPVT system and improve heat recovery even more.

I'm thinking the only way to retain the inverter heat in your case would be to have the inverter fans blowing into a small enclosure that has thru-flow to the return side of the HRV system (or at least have the inverters exhausting into a BIPVT type enclosure or duct that is already tied into the HRV).

Modeling it would be interesting.

I did read a scientific paper about how they conducted testing and simulations of Air-Type PVT systems coupled with HRV to compare the results to a baseline without the Air-Type PVT.  Sounded pretty sweet.

I can forward it to you if you're curious.

Chris Baker
CCI Alliance of Companies
Fort Wainwright, Alaska
907-356-1681 (x105) office
907-750-4922 cell

From: Equest-users [mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of Nicholas Caton via Equest-users
Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2017 2:47 PM
To: Bishop, Bill <bbishop at pathfinder-ea.com>
Cc: equest-users <equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org>
Subject: Re: [Equest-users] PV inverter heat?

Crazy talk!  (and I mean that in the most positive way!)

If you set up everything perfectly, I don't reckon the solar gain would track perfectly with the heat output of the inverter however... if you think of this window oriented to match the PV array panels, they are making some juice (and waste heat) when there isn't a "direct solar gain" but they're still getting energy when the sun is out of the line of sight.  I imagine there's some degree of "standby" power / heat gain as well when the PV panels are asleep at night.

Still set up well it could be a decent & quick stand-in for a more laborious 8760 schedule calculation to crunch and push into the model.

Once upon a time I lamented that transformers losses specified at the meter in eQUEST can't be attributed to a space/zone... Didn't foresee this potential application as I was focused on quantifying "premium efficiency" transformer savings, but alas I suspect that feature remains on the back burner.

[cid:image001.png at 01D29423.F0E3C1B0]
Nick Caton, P.E., BEMP
  Senior Energy Engineer
  Regional Energy Engineering Manager
  Energy and Sustainability Services
  Schneider Electric

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E  nicholas.caton at schneider-electric.com<mailto:nicholas.caton at schneider-electric.com>

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United States

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From: Equest-users [mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of Bishop, Bill via Equest-users
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2017 11:50 AM
To: equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org<mailto:equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org>
Subject: [Equest-users] PV inverter heat?

I'm working on a small net-positive-energy project in New York and considering all low-energy options for heating the building. It will have a PV system and I'd like to model waste heat from the inverter to consider putting it indoors. The waste heat would be a sensible heat gain that varied with solar radiation. (The greater the solar radiation, the higher the PV output and the more waste heat off the inverter, on the order of 400 watts for an 8 kW system.) I'm thinking of modeling the inverter as a south-facing window since heat gain to the space would vary with solar radiation. The trick would be to zero out as much as possible the window thermal conductance or make it equal to the outside wall value.
Thoughts?

Thanks,
~Bill

William Bishop, PE, BEMP, BEAP, CEM, LEED AP | Pathfinder Engineers & Architects LLP
Senior Energy Engineer

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