Hybrid Renewable Energy System for a Sustainable House-Power-Supply

Abstract

The main objective of the present research is to design a hybrid wind and solar energy?supply system for a rural residential building to meet its energy demands. The monthly averaged daily energy consumption for the dwelling was found to vary between 19 and 36 kWh. The system under consideration included some subsystems, namely: the hot?water service, the space-heating facility, and the power-utility system (wind electricity supply and storage system). The optimum design was obtained by carrying out a cost?benefit analysis for each of the subsystems. The hot-water system was designed to be based on solar flat-plate collectors, and a wind tree. The optimum hot-water facility is consisted of three flat-plate collectors, a storage heat exchanger with three coils, which are attached to flat-plate solar collectors, under-floor heating systems, and a wind tree power system. The large dimensions of the house were the limiting factor when investigating the feasibility of a solar-powered space-heating system. The existence of large windows made the space heating a very difficult and expensive task. The results show that the cost of the system is very expensive compared to the connection to the main grid. But on the other side, there will be a return investment value each year and the system will get all its costs after 14 years. Thus, if the average life of the system is 20 years old, the system will get profit after 14 years for six more years, in addition to the clean energy out from the system and the very beneficial positive effect on the environment.