Design of a Multigenerational System With Absorption Cooling for a Residential Community: A Case Study

Abstract

In this paper, a multigeneration system is proposed, which utilizes geothermal energy and a lithium-bromide absorption cooling cycle. The proposed system is capable of providing electricity, heating, cooling, and domestic hot water to a small residential community in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The performance of the system's heating and cooling capabilities were evaluated energetically and exergetically. A case study is presented by considering human occupancy loads and the impact of building material conditions on heating and cooling. System performance was investigated using parametric studies, where the operating conditions and ambient conditions were varied. Similar systems in the open literature were found to have an energetic and exergetic coefficient of performance (COP) of 0.8 and 0.3 for heating, while the proposed multigeneration system resulted in an energetic and exergetic coefficient of performance of 1.14 and 0.63 for heating, an increase of 30–52%. Additionally, the literature revealed that some systems resulted in an energy and exergy efficiency of 26.2% and 36.6%. The proposed multigeneration system achieved an energy and exergy efficiency of 31.86% and 63.33%, an improvement of 5.66–26.73%. The study was able to utilize the existing recommendations made by British Columbia to determine the necessary heating and cooling loads while also being able to successfully generate four useful outputs with a smaller footprint than those in the literature.