Evaluation of the Applicability of Fifth Generation District Heating and Cooling Systems for Net Zero Energy Campus

To address climate change and achieve carbon neutrality in the building sector, improving the efficiency of heating and cooling systems and integrating renewable energy sources are emerging as key technologies. Existing district heating systems face limitations in enhancing energy efficiency due to high thermal losses in pipelines. To overcome these challenges, a fifth-generation district heating and cooling system has been proposed. This study investigates the application of a fifth-generation district heating and cooling system to existing campus buildings with various load characteristics and evaluates their energy efficiency through simulations, comparing them to existing air-source heat pumps. Additionally, the study analyzes the improvement in self-consumption and self-sufficiency. The simulation results indicate that the self-consumption rate increased from 25% to 71% as the capacity of the roof photovoltaic system rose from 25 kWp to 100 kWp, and the balance between self-consumption and self-sufficiency increased from 39.2% to 61.2%.