IEA/ECBCS Annex 42 Publications

The following Annex 42 publications are available for download:

Annex 42 Final Report

  • An Experimental and Simulation-Based Investigation of the Performance of Small-Scale Fuel Cell and Combustion-Based Cogeneration Devices Serving Residential Buildings:

    This report summarizes the results of IEA/ECBCS Annex 42, an international task-shared research effort conducted by 26 organizations in 10 countries over the course of 5 years. Annex 42 conducted experimental work and developed simulation models to advance the design, operation, and analysis of residential cogeneration systems, and applied these models to assess their technical, environmental, and economic performance.

    ( Download | Read more )

    • Subtask A: The characterization cogeneration systems and occupant driven electrical and domestic hot water usage patterns.
    • Residential Cogeneration Systems: A Review Of The Current Technologies:

      This report provides useful information that has been gathered by the Annex from a large number of sources on the current state-of-knowledge of residential cogeneration technologies.

      Cogeneration systems in the residential sector have the ability to produce both useful thermal energy and electricity from a single source of fuel such as oil or natural gas. This means that the efficiency of energy conversion to useful heat and power is potentially significantly greater than by using the traditional alternatives of boilers or furnaces and conventional fossil fuel fired central electricity generation systems. If managed properly this increased efficiency can result in lower costs and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Cogeneration also has the added advantage of diversifying electrical energy production, thus potentially improving security of energy supply in the event of problems occurring with the main electricity grid.

      This report aims to provide an up-to-date review of the various cogeneration technologies suitable for residential applications. The report details are aimed providing basic information on these technologies to the computer modelling community, but the report will be of use to wider audiences as well.

      As residential scale cogeneration technologies are still in their infancy, the potential for residential cogeneration energy and emissions savings is yet to be firmly established, and the emissions savings are determined by the emissions of the displaced fuels. However, a study of the actual performance of a domestic Stirling engine system installed in a house in France in 2003 showed a primary energy saving of 13%, and potential savings energy and emission savings of 28% have been claimed for this technology in the UK.

      Technologies available and under development for residential, i.e. single-family (<10 kW) and multifamily (10 30 kW) applications, commercial (5 100 kW) and institutional cogeneration (20 100 kW) applications include:

      • reciprocating internal combustion engine based cogeneration systems,
      • micro-turbine based cogeneration systems,
      • fuel cell based cogeneration systems, and
      • reciprocating external combustion Stirling engine based cogeneration systems.

      Since the focus of this report is on technologies that are suitable for single-family and multi-family residential cogeneration applications (generally covered by systems of <10 kWe and <25 kWth), only the reciprocating internal combustion engine, fuel cell and Stirling engine based cogeneration systems are reviewed. The review covers the performance, environmental benefits, and cost of these technologies where the information was available. This information was collated from manufacturers and research organizations for the various technologies, and includes access to as yet unpublished material for the residential, commercial and institutional cogeneration sector.

      Micro-turbine based cogeneration systems that are currently available have capacities larger than is suitable for single-family dwellings, and are therefore not reviewed in this report.

      At the time of writing this report the use of small-scale commercial cogeneration plant in applications like hospitals, leisure facilities, (particularly those incorporating swimming pools), hotels or institutional buildings is well established and some of the technology fairly mature. These products are used to meet electrical and heat demands of a building for space and domestic hot water heating, and potentially absorption cooling of a building. However, the use of cogeneration plant for residential scale buildings has yet to become commercially viable though several manufacturers have developed products or are developing products suitable for residential scale use.

      ( Download )

    • European and Canadian non-HVAC Electric and DHW Load Profiles for Use in Simulating Residential Cogen. Systems:

      This report discusses the creation of occupant-driven electric and domestic hot water profiles for use in Annex 42. The data files containing the profiles are available for download using the 'Data files' link on the right.

      ( Download | Read more )

    Subtask B: Development, implementation and validation of cogeneration system models in building simulation programs. Subtask C: Demonstrative technical, environmental and economic assessment of selected cogeneration applications using the models developed in Subtask B.