Microcogeneration and polygeneration for building in mild climate

This paper deals with two Micro Combined Cooling, Heating and Power systems based on different technologies: Electric Heat Pump, EHP, and Desiccant Wheel, DW. In a test facility an intense experimental analysis has been carried out on a EHP driven by a Micro Cogenerator, MCHP: it can provide 20% savings in primary energy and a eduction of equivalent CO2 equal to 25% compared to separate production. A similar MCHP/EHP system has been installed in an office building located in the South of Italy in order to evaluate the “on site” performances. Furthermore an HVAC system based on a desiccant wheel coupled to a cogenerator, MCHP/HVAC-DW, has been analyzed too: it consists of a microcogenerator that supplies electricity to an air cooled water chiller and thermal energy to regenerate a desiccant wheel integrated in an air-handling unit. These applications are referred to mild climate locations in South Italy, with the aim to evaluate their potential employment in building conditioning systems. Test facilities, with their measurement systems, designed and built to evaluate erformances in actual operating condition are described too.