An integrated wind-powered energy system for residential applications in cold regions

Abstract

This thesis proposed an integrated direct wind-powered energy system that can provide drinking water, domestic hot water, space heating as well as electricity for residential applications of a remote community in a cold region. The novelty of the system is that it uses a wind turbine to directly power the heat pump, with the sea water as the evaporator that provides a constant temperature, without the need to use the wind turbine to convert the wind energy to electricity to power the heat pump. Environmental data from the selected location and the Engineering Equation Solver were used to perform the thermodynamic analyses of the system. The results indicate that the proposed system is promising. It is shown that in addition to being more environmentally benign, purchasing a wind turbine is more cost-effective over its lifetime than purchasing electricity from the local grid.