Hot water tanks: How to select the optimal modelling approach?

There is a rising interest for optimal use of thermal energy storages (TES) in buildings to improve energy efficiency and for load shifting in demand side management. In this context, a state of the art of the different methods for simulating sensible TES is proposed. Mathematical equations which describe the processes occurring in a sensible TES are difficult to solve with a simple formulation. That is the reason why a large number of storage models have been developed in the last decades. Few studies compare the different modeling approaches and their respective advantages and limitations. A review of the literature is thus performed and it focuses on eight different modeling approaches. The comparison is performed in terms of computational time, accuracy and application. A tree of selection is proposed to select the optimal TES modeling method for a given application.