In this paper, a simple two-dimensional theoretical model based on enthalpy formulation of a latent heat storage system has been developed to study the effects of thermo physical properties of heat exchanger container materials on the thermal performance of the storage system. Numerical results show that thermal conductivity, specific heat and density of the heat exchanger container materials increases, the melting time of the PCM decreases. Numerical results also show that high value of thermal conductivity of the heat exchanger container materials did not make significant contribution on the melt fraction. It is also found that initial temperature of the PCM does not have very important effects on the melting time, while the boundary wall temperature play an important role during melting. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

One of the main components of a closed ice slurry system is the heat exchanger in which ice slurry absorbs heat resulting in the melting ice crystals. Design calculations of heat exchangers are mainly based on heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop data. But experiments presented in this paper show the effect of ice slurry mass flux on heat transfer rate and heat transfer coefficient during melting. For the experiments, ice slurry was made from 6.5% ethylene glycol–water solution, flowing through a 16.91mm internal diameter, 1500mm long horizontal copper tube. The ice slurry was heated by hot water circulated at the annulus gap of the heat exchanger. Experiments of the melting process were conducted with changing the ice slurry mass flux and the ice fraction from 800 to 3500kgm⁻²s⁻¹ and 0 to 25%, respectively. During the experiment, it was found that the measured heat transfer rates increase with the mass flow rate and ice fraction; however, the effect of ice fraction appears not to be significant at high mass flow rate. At the region of low mass flow rates, a sharp increase in the heat transfer coefficient was observed when the ice fraction was more than a certain value. Experiments were also conducted to investigate the effect of hot water temperature on the heat transfer coefficient. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Due to increased grid problems caused by renewable energy systems being used to realize zero energy buildings and communities, the importance of energy sharing and self-sufficiency of renewable energy also increased. In this study, the energy performance of an energy-sharing community was investigated to improve its energy efficiency and renewable energy self-sufficiency. For a case study, a smart village was selected via detailed simulation. In this study, the thermal energy for cooling, heating, and domestic hot water was produced by ground source heat pumps, which were integrated with thermal energy storage (TES) with solar energy systems. We observed that the ST system integrated with TES showed higher self-sufficiency with grid interaction than the PV and PVT systems. This was due to the heat pump system being connected to thermal energy storage, which was operated as an energy storage system. Consequently, we also found that the ST system had a lower operating energy, CO₂ emissions, and operating costs compared with the PV and PVT systems.