The Austrian photovoltaic project developer Paul Langmann has equipped an apartment building with a solar façade and a roof-mounted system. However, the solar power is not used for the residents‘ electrical devices, but for the heat supply. For this purpose, a hot water tank was installed in each of the eight apartments and in the commercial unit on the first floor. A My PV heating rod keeps the water at the specified temperature and uses mainly electricity from the façade and roof. This provides the apartments with hot water for domestic use.
Space heating with infrared panels
Infrared panels installed in the rooms provide the heating. They also primarily use the solar power produced on site. Only if this is not sufficient, the infrared panels and the heating elements are powered from an additionally installed storage battery. This stores the solar energy temporarily, which is not used directly by the heat generators. Only if it is no longer able to provide sufficient energy for the heat generators, they are supplied from the grid.
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With the energy concept, the house owner is pursuing several goals at once. On the one hand, he has saved a lot of installation time and money, because there are no hot water pipes laid in the building. This also reduces the amount of energy required for heat supply, as there are hardly any losses. Instead, the heating supply is realized exclusively via power cables.
Minimize electricity purchases from suppliers
On the other hand Langmann wants to receive as little as possible energy for the space heating and warm water supply from the supplier. This was also achieved, as the results already show after the first year of operation. You can read what these results look like in a more elaborate dossier, which you can find in the Solar Age project database. (su/mfo)
