An integrated heat recovery and storage system for a residential building

In this article, a novel multigeneration system is proposed which can produce four useful outputs for a small residential building located in Ottawa, Ontario (Canada). The residential building has a total of six floors, 24 units, and houses ~96 residents. The system uses parabolic solar collectors to superheat steam, which then provides energy to the remainder of the cycle. During the nighttime or poor weather conditions, the system can still function effectively by using hot and cold molten salt storage tanks. The molten salt storage tanks contain mixtures of NaNO3 and KNO3, at 45% and 55%, respectively. The proposed system has an overall energetic and exergetic efficiencies of 43.33% and 60.55% during the heating process, and 38.42% and 70.87% during the cooling process, respectively. To effectively operate, the system must consume 2256 kW of solar energy. The high and low‐pressure turbines have a combined power output of 713.8 kW, at an isentropic efficiency of 90%. The heating and cooling loads output from the condenser and the evaporator were calculated to be 471.7 and 316 kW, respectively. The load produced from this system can adequately satisfy the peak load conditions. The cascade system added to the evaporator will enable it to act more effectively compared to the condenser in terms of the coefficient of performance (COP). Also, the desalination system is capable of meeting the daily water requirements of 654.12 m3/day, by consuming untreated water at a flow rate of 84.71 kg/s and releasing distilled water at 7.55 kg/s.