Thermal Energy Storage (TES)

Thermal Energy Storage (TES)

– reduce costs by using the building structure for energy storage

Thermal energy storage (TES) systems can heavily reduce the installed cooling loads and peak power loads. TES systems today often refer to ice storage and chilled water systems which are expensive to install and have high running costs due to their complexity. By using the building structure for energy storage no extra equipment is needed (such as water tanks, cooling refrigerant circuits, air/water heat exchangers, etc).

TermoDeck® uses the thermal storage capacity of the building´s structural mass to regulate the internal temperatures. The effectiveness of the building’s thermal mass is enhanced by passing supply air through the slab before it enters the room. The slabs work as heat exchangers between the supply air and the rooms.

With TermoDeck, the effectiveness of the building’s thermal mass is enhanced as the whole concrete floor slab can be utilised for energy storage. The reason is that the supply air is cooling it from the inside. The total surface of the cores exposed to the supply air is very big. Therefore, the concrete slab can effectively be cooled overnight and dissipates the surplus heat generated from people, lighting, computers, sun radiation, etc, that is stored during day time. There is no risk for over cooling of the room as the cold supply air is cooling the slab and therefore heated up before entering the room. During cold periods this stored heat is used to keep the building warm overnight; the concrete floors thus act as an energy store.

The theoretical storage capacity of a 200-400 mm deep hollow core concrete slab is around 100 Wh/m2, K (depending on the size of the cores and the thickness of the structural screed used on top of the slab). Example: An increase in the average slab temperature of 3oC means that 300Wh/m2 is stored which divided on 8 hours is 37 W/m2.

All this energy that has been stored in the slabs during daytime can be removed during the night. This leads to a saving in installed cooling load by around 50%. Peak power loads (3-5h) can re reduced by 70-90%.

For more information about thermal energy storage (TES):