Pebbles Bed Thermal Storage for Heating and Cooling of Buildings

Abstract

This study focuses on pebbles bed as thermal storage system that aims to provide a thermal comfort inside residential buildings combining many other passive techniques to reap energy savings. In the present paper we introduce to an ongoing study covering the overall analysis of pebbles bed thermal storage experiment. The experiment will take place in under construction villa located 70 km north of Marrakech. The pebbles bed was excavated directly in the earth and connected to an air tower that contains multifunction unit for blowing/extracting hot or cold air from/to the pebbles bed. This installation allows various sets of thermal charges and discharges. The system components will be modeled taking into account thermal losses of the storage system towards the surrounding soil. This study is expected to assess the efficiency limits and whether it can succeed to achieve the yield required to reduce power consumption.