New solutions for heating to test ULTDH in Spain

The Swedish manufacturer of intelligent solutions for heating and control NIBE recently sent over to Iurreta, a demonstration site within the Horizon 2020 project RELaTED located in northern Spain, some specially developed components that will contribute to transforming the district heating network owned by the Basque Government into an ultra-low temperature network.

Specifically, the shipment contained 3 specially developed heat pumps, where each heat pump has a heat capacity of around 60 kW heating capacity at typical running conditions for the Iurreta demo site. The heat pumps are based on the NIBE F1345 model and modified for being able to:

• Run with higher source temperatures (low temp district heating).
• Run at high efficiency at typical running conditions.
• Run with water as a heat source (safety issues).
• Provide heating and cooling via a hydraulic module.

NIBE also provided 3 hydraulic modules which are newly developed. The hydraulic module mainly consists of 2 pcs of 4-way-valves where the flows can switch, making it possible to provide cooling or heating to a fan-coil distribution system from the heat pumps. The heat pumps will heat and cool two buildings. One building will use 1 hp and 1 hydraulic module, and another building will have 2 hps and 2 hydraulic modules working in parallel. For the communication between the heat pumps and the building control system, we also supply an accessory for Modbus communication.

NIBE will also provide 4 pcs of 300 l buffer tanks for this demo site, which will be shipped soon from Markaryd, in Sweden. The buffer tanks will increase the system volume of the heating and cooling fluid, making the control of the heat pumps more robust.

The Iurreta site is a campus comprised of 13 multi-rise buildings with different architectonic designs and use profiles. The complex hosts several of the Basque Country regional police (Ertzaintza)´s emergency, rescue and rapid intervention units. This campus area is a site where the possibilities of ultra-low temperature district heating systems in corporate building complexes are being tested.