Profiling of hot water use from electrical thermal storage vessels
AssigneeVito NV
InventorsKoen VANTHOURNOUT, Wim CARDINAELS, Steven VAN DEUN
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and retrofit system hot water or cold water consumption profiling to obtain electrical flexibility data of hot or cold thermal storage vessels driven by heat pump or a heat exchanger e.g. driven by electricity, such as electrical boilers with resistance heaters or driven by a heat pump or heat exchanger e.g. driven by electricity. In particular the determination of flexibility of thermal storage vessels such as DHW buffers or DCW buffers, e.g. for use in stabilisation of the electricity grid.
Claims21
1-34. (canceled)
A method of operating a system for providing hot or cold water, the system having a plurality of thermal energy storage vessels and an electrical distribution system for supplying electrical power to the thermal energy storage vessels, a hot water thermal energy storage vessel having a fresh water inlet and a hot water outlet or a cold water thermal energy storage vessel having a fresh water inlet and a cold water outlet, further comprising means for charging the thermal energy storage vessels using electrical energy provided by the electrical system, and means to measure the timing and the amount of electrical energy consumed by the hot or cold water thermal energy storage vessel or group of thermal energy storage vessels over a time period, the method comprising:
- retro-fitting means for measuring the amount of hot or cold water dispensed over the time period from a hot or cold water thermal energy storage vessel or a group of thermal energy storage vessels, respectively,
- calculating and storing historical data of thermal energy consumed by or dispensed from each thermal energy storage vessel or from the group of thermal energy storage vessels for the time period, and
- predicting future times of supply of water or consumption of electrical energy to be used for charging each thermal energy storage vessel or group of thermal energy storage vessels from the historical data of dispensed or consumed thermal energy, wherein the retrofitting step does not alter one, or two or three or all of the following:
- local controller security based set-points, of legacy equipment, if present are not overridden;
- and/or
- security cut-outs or fuses or alarms, if present the security cut-outs or fuses or alarms of legacy equipment are not altered or suppressed,
- thermostats of legacy equipment, if present are not overridden, which continue to perform their duties as previously, and/or
- local security features of legacy equipment, if present are not overridden, which would result in depletion of water in the storage vessels, and
- at least some of the thermal energy storage vessels have only one heater or only one cooler and that after the retro-fitting step, the thermal energy storage vessels still have only one heater or one cooler.
A method of operating a system for providing hot or cold water, the system having a plurality of thermal energy storage vessels and an electrical distribution system for supplying electrical power to the thermal energy storage vessels, a hot water thermal energy storage vessel having a fresh water inlet and a hot water outlet or a cold water thermal energy storage vessel having a fresh water inlet and a cold water outlet, further comprising means for charging the thermal energy storage vessels using electrical energy provided by the electrical system, and means to measure the timing and the amount of electrical energy consumed by the hot or cold water thermal energy storage vessel or group of thermal energy storage vessels over a time period, the method comprising:
- retro-fitting means for measuring the amount of hot or cold water dispensed over the time period from a hot or cold water thermal energy storage vessel or a group of thermal energy storage vessels, respectively,
- calculating and storing historical data of thermal energy consumed by or dispensed from each thermal energy storage vessel or from the group of thermal energy storage vessels for the time period, and
- predicting future times of supply of water or consumption of electrical energy to be used for charging each thermal energy storage vessel or group of thermal energy storage vessels from the historical data of dispensed or consumed thermal energy.
A system for providing hot or cold water, comprising:
- a plurality of thermal energy storage vessels and an electrical system for supplying electrical power to the thermal energy storage vessels,
- a hot water thermal energy storage vessel having a fresh water inlet and a hot water outlet or a cold water thermal energy storage vessel having a fresh water inlet and a cold water outlet,
- further comprising means for charging the thermal energy storage vessels using electrical energy provided by the electrical system, each thermal energy storage vessel or a group of thermal energy storage vessels having retro-fitted means to measure the timing of, and the energy supplied in the volume of water dispensed from each thermal energy storage vessel or the group of thermal energy storage vessels and retrofitted means to measure the timing of, and the electrical energy consumed by each thermal energy storage vessel or the group of thermal energy storage vessels over the time period, retro-fitted means for calculating and storing historical data of consumed electrical energy and dispensed thermal energy for a time period dispensed from one thermal energy storage vessel or from a group of thermal energy storage vessels,
- means for predicting from the historical data of dispensed thermal energy and consumed electrical energy, future times of supply of water or consumption of electrical energy to be used for charging each thermal energy storage vessel or group of thermal energy storage vessels.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.