Energy analysis of a building-integrated micro-cogeneration system for a residential application in south italy

This paper investigates the energetic feasibility of a building-integrated cogeneration system for an Italian residential application by means of transient simulations. The system under investigation was based on a natural gas-fuelled internal combustion engine cogeneration unit with 6.0 kW as rated nominal electric output and 11.7 kW as rated nominal thermal output; auxiliary thermal energy was supplied by a natural gas-fired boiler. The plant was coupled with a multi-family house composed of three floors located in Naples (Italy), compliant with the transmittance values suggested by Italian Law. The analysis was carried out by means of a dynamic whole building simulation software and the simulation results were considered in order to compare the performance of the proposed system with a conventional system composed of a natural gas boiler with an electricity supply from the grid in order to estimate the suitability of the proposed scheme in comparison to the reference system based on separate energy production. The simulations results showed that the proposed system makes it possible to reduce the primary energy consumption.