VKTES

The primary objective of this project is to develop key figures and methods to support engineers in the technical and economical comparison of different construction types and construction principles for thermal energy storage and to allow manufacturers and planners of building services to define and to assess different storage construction types regarding their suitability for applications such as heating, hot water preparation, cooling, etc.

For this purpose, key figures shall be defined and test methods shall be developed to enable the manufacturers of thermal energy storage to include comparable information in their technical documents. All known storage types and storage media (sensitive, latent, thermochemical) are considered.

To achieve the required broad effect and market acceptance, the focus is on key figures that can be determined in an easy and cost-efficient way.

The developed key figures for storage are validated by the project partners with numerous measurements of marketable storages up to approx. 1 m³ of content, along with simulation and plausibility calculations.

The research findings will be included in the “VDI 4657 Blatt 2” standard (design and integration of energy storages in buildings) that can be used by storage manufacturers and planners of building services.

Project duration

09/2021 – 08/2023

Project partners

• Münster University of Applied Sciences (FHM), Steinfurt campus, Germany
• Technische Universität Dresden (TUD), Dresden, Germany
• Hochschule Zittau/Görlitz (HSZG) University of Applied Sciences, Zittau/Görlitz, Germany
• Bavarian Center for Applied Energy Research (ZAE Bayern), Würzburg/Garching, Germany
• Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology, Oberhausen/Willich/Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Germany
• The Association of German Engineers (VDI), Germany
• GEFGA Energiesysteme GmbH, Limburg, Germany
• BEKA Heiz- und Kühlmatten GmbH, Berlin, Germany
• IBF Ingenieurbüro Fonfara, Lalling, Germany

Acknowledgements

The project ”Development of comparative key figures for thermal energy storage” (Acronym: VKTES) is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) via Project Management Jülich (PtJ).