Contributions to the decarbonisation of the EU building stock by the upgrade of its heating & cooling facilities
The decarbonisation of buildings has become key to meet the targets of several energy related policies, being the main one the Green Deal, which has stablished that the EU should be carbon neutral by 2050. The aim of this work is to provide insights that can help the decision making in the decarboni...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis doctoral |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2026 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche |
| Repositorio: | REDIUMH. Depósito Digital de la UMH |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:dnet:rediumh_____::11d67d3e62f5fc64fc7ad84115c567ca |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/11000/39946 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | energy efficiency building modeling nZEB simulation low-temperature heating heat pump building renovation hydronic facilities decarbonisation energy buildings high-temperature heating hybrid CDU::6 - Ciencias aplicadas::69 - Materiales de construcción. Prácticas y procedimientos de construcción CDU::6 - Ciencias aplicadas::62 - Ingeniería. Tecnología::620 - Ensayo de materiales. Materiales comerciales. Economía de la energía |
| Sumario: | The decarbonisation of buildings has become key to meet the targets of several energy related policies, being the main one the Green Deal, which has stablished that the EU should be carbon neutral by 2050. The aim of this work is to provide insights that can help the decision making in the decarbonisation of the EU building stock, making emphasis in its heating and cooling facilities. The electrification of the heating demand through the use of heat pumps is a common solution adopted in the building sector to substitute fuel-based heating systems, like boilers. In the last few years, the installation of heat pumps to substitute gas boilers has increased. The main issue, that most of the end users do not take into account, are the different working conditions of heat pumps and boilers. If a facility has been calculated and sized to provide the heating demand at specific water production temperatures, it won't work if these temperatures are lower, unless some conditions are meet. One line of research explores the barriers that the downgrade of the water temperatures in the facility could make and how to overcome them. Issues with the current indoor units' surface, due to the lower temperatures, or the higher water pressure drop, due to the higher water flow, can be the key to understand if the installation of heat pumps is feasible. In most of the cases, a previous building retrofit is essential to make the building "low-temperature" ready. If building retrofits cannot be performed, then the installation of heat pumps that work at 45/50°C is challenging. In the second line of research, we explore the possibilities of installing low-carbon technologies without downgrading the water supply temperature. The technologies covered are hybrid and high-temperature heat pumps. The procedure followed to decarbonise buildings is usually seen as changing a boiler with a heat pump. Having a boiler is not the case in buildings located in Mediterranean areas that have a much higher cooling than heating demand. The third line of research explores the possibilities to decarbonise 100% electrified buildings that are located in Mediterranean areas. In this line of research, we explore what type of solutions can be applied this type of buildings with a case study. The work done in this doctoral thesis covers different types of buildings located in specific areas of the EU. This means that it covers a wide range of decarbonisation strategies, which depend on the location of buildings and the heating and cooling systems used. |
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