Quantifying Thermal Flexibility of Multy-Family and Office Buildings

Abstract

The increased feed-in of solar electricity into the grid needs to be counterbalanced by an increase in self-consumption of buildings. This presentation addresses the differences in thermal flexibility between a multi-family house and an office building and the implications to thermal comfort. It looks into the operating time of both heating and cooling and gives simplified design criteria for residential buildings. The findings of the thermal simulations suggest that it seems easier to utilize thermal flexibility in residential buildings than in office buildings. Transferred to the Swiss building stock, it is estimated that roughly 10% of the dwellings could offer some thermal flexibility to the grid.