Climate impact on the prime mover size and design of a CCHP system for the residential building

Iran is a country with five different climates and 50 degrees C temperature difference between its warmest and coldest regions. In the present paper, the prime-mover capacity of a CCHP system for the same building in five different climates is determined. For this purpose, five cities from these climates are chosen and their weather information for the last five years is gathered from the Iran Metrological Organization. The hourly load of the five cities for the whole year is calculated and the maximum rectangle method is used to determine the size of the prime mover and the recommended full load operation time. The results show that the CCHP system saves energy during the whole year for all the climates. The yearly average fuel energy saving ratio of 37.85%, 33.16%, 30.75%, 29.60% and 25.30% are achieved for Chabahar, Ahwaz, Kamyaran, Tehran and Bandar Anzali, respectively. Furthermore, the analyses show that no heating system is needed for the cities of Chabahar and Ahwaz, but an auxiliary boiler is needed for all the climates to compensate the lack of heating or to support the absorption chiller. The sensitivity analysis shows that the hourly load of building is least sensitive to the minimum wet bulb temperature. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.