MiniStor
Our Demostration Sites
The MiniStor concept will be demonstrated and evaluated in an operational environment of real-life conditions in one pre-pilot and five demonstration sites, following appropriate deployment guidelines and legislations.
The demonstration sites are located in North-West Europe (Ireland), Western Europe (Spain), Southern Europe (Greece) and Central Europe (Hungary). These pilot sites represent residential usage having diverse climatic conditions, thermal load needs, energy realities, expectations and regulations.
Deployment in these demonstration sites will be thoroughly planned, their stakeholders will be trained to maximize use of the MiniStor system.
Acceptance tests of the system will be performed, allowing to validate the human-centric HEMS previous to installation.
Throughout the demonstration phase and in all locations, a series of performance key-performance indicators (KPIs) will be measured (e.g. energy efficiency, storage capacity, environmental conditions, etc.). The system will be monitored for at least two heating and two cooling seasons (winter and summer). Experience gained during the first year of operation will be used to gather feedback for fine-tuning system components.
The system will be evaluated for its impact on intended end-users. Lessons taken from the demonstration phase will be applied to create skilled workers and SMEs that can carry out actual installation and commissioning. Replicability of system installation across Europe will also be learned.
Demostration sites in depth
The prototype (without the solar field) was tested under controlled conditions at the facilities of EMI (Non-Profit Limited Liability Company for Quality Control and Innovation in Building), located in Szentendre, Hungary. Although this is not a demonstration site, it was used to characterize the system under varying input temperatures and operational cycles.
As a prototype, the MiniStor system was built and tested under different conditions to better understand the key parameters needed for the demonstration sites. These tests helped refine system modeling, assess performance, and regulate both summer and winter operating modes. The results also contributed to the system’s certification process. The MiniStor container was installed outside the main laboratory building to carry out these evaluations.
Responsible partner: Cork City Council (Comhairle Cathrach Chorcaí)
Climate type: Oceanic climate, about 24 meters above sea level
Expected impact: 40% energy reduction and 1.o m3 max. storage material
Housing type: social housing complex
Cork city council dwelling, semi-detached, two-storey, three-bedroom, habitable area of approximately 75.286 m² housing 5 occupants. The system is divided into three zones, each with independent thermostats, allowing for manual temperature adjustments based on the season.
The residential complex was built between 1978 and 1986. CCC manages 9.000 social houses, with MiniStor as part of a three-stage approach to improve and certificate their energy efficiency, combining new and already existing sources of energy. This demonstrator is a testament to the diverse residential usage of the novel energy storage solution, answering to various climatic conditions, thermal load needs, energy realities, expectations and regulations.
Demo site needs:
- The MiniStor system will be implemented to provide electricity, heating, and DHW, partially meeting the energy needs of the Cork demo site.
- Adapt temperature of the house considering the humidity of the environment as it is so close to the sea.
- Expected impact: 40% energy reduction and 1.o m3 max. storage material
MiniStor System
- Glazed PVT Collectors
- Flate plate solar Thermal Collectors (FPC)
- New solar field: 4 PVT panels with total gross area of 6.44 m2 and the solar frame
- Electrical storage
- Electricity feed: bi-phasic
- Enclosure type: smaller for shipping
- MiniStor glycol circuit pump, transferring stored heat to the house’s heat exchanger
Responsible partner: University of Santiago de Compostela (USC)
Climate type: temperate with Atlantic Ocean influence
Expected impact: 40% energy reduction and 1.0 m3 max. storage material
Housing type: student residence apartments
For the demonstration, USC selected the “Burgo de las Naciones Hall” a U-shaped building with a large interior patio. The building serves as a university residence for students and visiting faculty, featuring 400 individual rooms and 9 apartments. One apartment was chosen for the demonstration because of its continuous occupancy as is inhabited by a family. This apartment, located in the southwest wing, has a single level with 80.47 m² of living space, including 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a bathroom, and a hall.
Each room in the selected apartment has a radiator connected to these circuits, ensuring an even distribution of heat and hot water. In September 2020, the heating and hot water systems were renovated, adding four gas condensing boilers and five buffer tanks. In this demonstrator, the MiniStor project wants to demonstrate how to effectively supply energy to a continuously occupied apartment, as part of a building complex with shared energy distribution infrastructure.
Demo site needs:
- For the MiniStor Project, the Apartment will be isolated with an individual hydraulic circuit for heating and hot water, while still receiving heat from the inertia tanks for reliability.
- The MiniStor system aims to provide electricity, heating, and DHW to the apartment.
MiniStor System
- 20 Unglazed PVT Collectors
- Additional heat pump
- A canalization will link the PVT solar collectors to the MiniStor container and then to the building’s basement
- New solar field in the courtyard area
- Electrical storage
- Electricity feed: tri-phasic
- Enclosure type: same size
Responsible partner: Woodspring Ltd
Climate type: continental humid climate with large seasonal temperatures differences and sub-alpine climate influence. It has a heating demand for five months and cooling needed for about one and a half months.
Expected impact: 65% energy reduction and 1.0 m3 max. storage material.
Housing type: single private house
This building, designed and constructed as a nearly zero-energy structure with high thermal insulation, requires heating due to the challenging climatic conditions. The demonstration site has a dual function: the upper floor is a family home, where energy consumption peaks during the weekends, while the ground floor hosts the Woodspring research division offices, with higher energy usage during the weekdays.
This demonstrator is being used to test how energy can be generated to meet the needs of this house, which is particularly challenging due to the varying energy demands throughout the week and the harsh weather conditions. The house requires a system capable of adapting to these dynamic energy loads while maintaining efficiency and comfort.
Demo Site needs:
- Reach the heating demands of the house. Considering its special location, climatic conditions and the different loads of activity during the week and the weekend.
- The building’s planning phase coincided with the MiniStor project, allowing for optimization of the heating and domestic hot water systems to integrate MiniStor’s capabilities.
MiniStor System
- HVAC system is integrated for heating, cooling, and ventilation
- Fresh air is conditioned through a 3 kW heat exchanger driven by a soil collector, which preheats air in winter and cools it in summer
- New solar field includes both PVTs and solar thermal collectors
- Glazed PVT Collectors connected to the grid and charging a battery
- Flate plate Solar Thermal Collectors (FPC)
- Electrical storage
- Electricity feed: tri-phasic
- Enclousure type: same size
Responsible partner: Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH)
Climate type: warm summer Mediterranean climate
Expected impact: 27% energy reduction (DHW) and 0.8 m3 max. storage material
Housing type: student resident apartments
Built in 1997, this demonstration site is part of the Kimmeria student housing complex at the Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH) in northern Greece. MiniStor will provide heating and cooling to five rooms located on the ground and first floors, covering a heated volume of 226.95 m³ and a total area of 75.65 m². The rooms have different orientations to evaluate the system’s performance under both southern and northern exposures.
This demonstrator presents the challenge of managing thermal comfort across several rooms located in different areas of the building. Each space has varying energy demands throughout the day, requiring a flexible and responsive system capable of adapting to dynamic and spatially diverse conditions.
Demo Site needs:
- MiniStor will heat These rooms have different orientations to test the system’s response to both southern and northern exposures
- MiniStor system at the DUTH demo site will connect to the building’s hot water collector for thermal energy
- There is no existing cooling connection, so the MiniStor system will also address the cooling needs of the DUTH rooms during summer, in addition to providing heating in winter.
MiniStor System
- Fan coil units, connected to MiniStor’s hot and cold PCM, will be installed in student rooms.
- Existing biomass boiler
- Polar thermal collectors (FPC)
- Electricity feed: tri-phasic
- Enclosure type: same size
Responsible partner: CERTH-ITI (The Centre for Research and Technology Hellas)
Climate type: Mediterranean climate
Expected impact: It is the first smart near-Zero Energy Building (nZEB) of Greece.
Housing type: Smart Home
This pre-demonstration site is located on the premises of CERTH in Thessaloniki, Greece. The Smart Home serves as a demonstration testbed featuring a high density of sensors and automated systems, designed to evaluate and test new automation technologies. Built in 2017, the building has a total habitable area of 317.7 m², with 182.7 m² on the ground floor and 135 m² on the first floor. Currently, this smart home is used as office space for CERTH personnel, meaning its occupancy is typically limited to standard weekday working hours.
The MiniStor project will use this pre-demo site to test the installation and integration of all technologies that will later be deployed at the other demonstration sites. The Smart Home offers ideal conditions to simulate real-world scenarios, allowing the team to evaluate how the MiniStor system can be effectively incorporated into a functioning building environment.
Demo site needs:
- MiniStor testing will take place in a large room (“Control Room West”)
- The building’s electricity demand is partially met by thin film CIS PV panels on the roof
- Excess electricity from MiniStor will be used for lighting purposes.
- As a pre-pilot it is used to test MiniStor different technologies
MiniStor System
- New solar field moved to above the existing machinery room, which is to the north-west of the Smart Home
- Glazed PVT Collectors
- Flate Plate Solar Thermal Collectors (FPC)
- Heating and cooling needs are currently met by two HVAC systems
- Hydraulic and electrical connections
- Electricity feed: tri-phasic
- Enclosure type: same size