Dr. Krisztina Kelevitz

By using a peak load auxiliary heating system, oversizing of the heat pump can be avoided. Oil and gas peak load boilers are standard today but should be replaced in the future due to their CO2 emissions and measures to fight climate change. The utilization of biomass as an energy source is comparatively more complex and domestic biomass resources are already largely exhausted. Energy carriers X, which are produced based on renewable electricity (Power-to-X), could replace fossil-fueled peak load coverage in the future.

Renewable Metal Fuels (ReMeF) are seasonal energy carriers which are able to enhance the energy security. We investigate the contribution that ReMeF can make as combined heat and power elements of the building stock a) to cover the local demand for electricity and heat and b) to feed electricity into the grid to support the energy system. In focus are metals as winter-energy suppliers based on their availability, cost, and chemical properties, which potentially can achieve greenhouse gas savings compared to import-options or natural gas based systems. PeakMetal is co-funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), and lasts from December 2022 to December 2023.

RENOWAVE is a flagship project of the Swiss Innovation Agency (Innosuisse). It aims to reduce the CO₂ emissions of the Swiss building stock by renovating buildings and switching from fossil fuels to renewable energies.

Experience from various pilot and demonstration projects, as well as the assessment of experts, suggests that heating and cooling systems are often oversized. However, since there were no systematic studies on this topic in Switzerland, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) commissioned the SPF and the IET - Institute of Energy Technology with the OptiPower project. The team examined a total of 341 heating systems in the multi-family house sector and ten administrative buildings with regard to the heating and cooling power actually required based on the evaluation of measurement data and the installed power. It was found that in the multi-family housing sector there is a median oversizing of 44 % and in the administrative buildings the systems are oversized by a factor of 2-3. The project team further investigated how this oversizing affects the costs and efficiency of the heat pumps and formulated corresponding recommendations in the final report.

For the new building of Oblamatik AG in Chur, a heating and cooling concept that is unique in Switzerland was developed. Using the foundation slab as a heat sink and heat source represents an alternative to the current heating systems for office buildings. The regeneration of the foundation slab in winter as well as in summer is mainly guaranteed by PVT collectors. The HVAC concept is designed to use as much of the internal heat (servers, commercial refrigeration, etc.) as possible directly for heating purposes.