An efficient use of waste heat recovery and geothermal heat can play an important role in lowering the overall energy use of buildings. This study evaluated the potential of geothermal energy and heat recovery from residential wastewater to reduce the energy need of building-ventilation in cold climates. The performance of the mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) system in a multi-family building located in central Sweden was studied. The focus of the investigation was on reduction of frosting in the air handling unit during the coldest months. Three configurations of one air preheating system fed by two renewable heat sources, wastewater and geothermal energy, were studied. It was found that compared to building without an air preheating system, the suggested air preheating systems reduced the defrosting time to 25%. By controlling and maintaining the preheated air temperature to slightly above the defrosting start, air heat recovery efficiency of MVHR above 80% was achieved for 90% of the studied time during heating season when frosting occurs. The energy need for the circulation pumps in the suggested air preheating systems was 5% of the recovered thermal energy from wastewater. The simulation results suggested that the air preheating system using wastewater heat recovery with a temperature-stratified storage tank was the most efficient one among the studied systems.

Residential wastewater is a constant and available source for saving energy. This paper mainly investigated the possibility of utilizing wastewater heat to reduce ventilation heat load. Swedish residential buildings are to a significant extent served by mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) systems. MVHR in airtight buildings has greatly reduced ventilation heat loads, especially in cold climate countries such as Sweden. However, cold outdoor air might lead to frost formation in heat recovery exchangers which increases the energy use. Therefore, this study focused on reducing the defrosting need by preheating the incoming cold outdoor air to MVHR during the coldest days. The effects of preheating the incoming air to MVHR on ventilation heat load and annual ventilation heating demand were also studied. It was found that the heat recovery efficiency of MVHR is the most decisive factor in rating the performance of the combined system with an air preheater. Contributions of the studied air preheater to annual energy savings were negligible. On the other hand, the reduction of the initial defrosting need was significant. The obtained results showed that the defrosting need in a building located in central Sweden in two cases of an MVHR system equipped with a rotary heat exchanger/plate heat exchanger was eliminated/reduced to one-third. The defrosting need was reduced by 50% in northern Sweden for both cases.

Frosting is a common issue in air-to-air heat recovery exchangers installed in buildings in cold climate countries. Further to the developed defrosting methods, frost prevention by preheating the outdoor air can reduce the energy usage in buildings. In this study, residential wastewater as a renewable heat source is used to preheat the outdoor air. Due to limited wastewater hourly flowrate and the impact of preheated air temperature on the efficiency of heat exchanger, controlling the preheating temperature is of utmost importance. In this investigation, preheated and exhaust air temperatures are monitored to generate an operational signal to the wastewater circulation pump. The cold surface at the heat exchanger and the dew point of the return air are analyzed to comprehend the condensation and frosting temperatures. The results show that in case of 30% relative humidity in the return air, the frosting threshold is at preheated and exhaust air temperatures below -2.2°C and 2.1°C, respectively. Using these temperatures as controlling parameters, the frosting period has decreased by 23%.

This study investigated the thermal potential of two renewable heat sources, residential wastewater and geothermal energy, for preheating the incoming air to the air-handling unit (AHU) in a multi-family building. The main purpose of preheating the inlet air was to avoid the frost formation inside AHU due to low outdoor temperatures during winter. Wastewater extraction flowrate and temperature, as two design parameters, were studied in detail by employing two types of wastewater storage tanks.The suggested outdoor air preheating systems equally reduced the defrosting period to 26% compared to the mechanical ventilation with heat recovery system (MVHR) without air preheating. The system that utilized a temperature stratified wastewater storage tank provided a higher ratio of heat output to electricity input. The other outdoor air preheating system, which was equipped with an unstratified wastewater storage tank, provided a lower ratio of heat output to pumping power. However, this ratio was not disturbed by variations in outdoor air temperature.

This study has focused on evaluating the financial potential of wastewater and geothermal heat recovery systems in a multi-family building. The recovered heat was used to improve the performance of mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) system during the coldest days in central Sweden. The main issue, which was targeted with these solutions, was to reduce frost formation in the system and hence increase its thermal efficiency. By looking at the life cycle cost over a lifespan of 20 years, the observed systems were being evaluated economically. Furthermore, statistical analyses were carried-out to counter the uncertainty that comes with the calculation. It was found that the studied wastewater systems have a high possibility of generating savings in this period, while the one fed by geothermal energy is less likely to compensate for its high initial cost. All designed systems however, managed to reduce operational cost by 35-45% due to lower energy usage.