The demonstration projects have been realised with financial support either through the ‘OP-Zuid’ program (EU regional development funding combined with funding from the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant), or from Dutch TKI Urban-Energy projects. We also acknowledge the support from the Technical University of Eindhoven in the development of the DMP Solar System, and 040 Groep for installation of the demonstration systems.

The ‘Veldhoven DMP-XL’ demonstration project concerns an XL version of the DMP solar thermal system, which has been operational since September 2022. The location is a 200 m2 business unit, consisting of 100 m2 offices and 100 m2 production/storage space, where the solar heat is used for space heating, DHW generation, and process heat for R&D purposes. The system consists of 2 vacuum tube collectors (10 m2), coupled to a 1000-liter buffer tank. The space heating is directly coupled to the buffer tank (solar preheating for a condensing gas boiler), DHW and process heat are generated via plate heat exchangers.

The ‘Meerhoven’ (Eindhoven area, the Netherlands) demonstration project for the DMP Solar System has been operational since September 2018. The house is a single-family home, semi-detached, occupied by a young family with 2 children. The solar collector in this system is a CPC vacuum tube collector with a gross area of 5.5 m2, which is combined with a 400-litre buffer tank. The second heat source in this demo-system is an 8 kW air-source heat pump, which provides space heating and is the back-up heat source for domestic hot water preparation. Domestic hot water is prepared by heating the potable water on-demand with the Conico hot water station, using heat from the buffer tank.
Results from the first year of operation of the demo-system show that the heat pump only becomes active on 183 days of the year, staying off on sunny days and throughout summer. The solar fraction of the total energy supplied for domestic hot water preparation is almost 60%.

The ‘Waalre’ (Eindhoven area, the Netherlands) demonstration project for the DMP Solar System has been operational since April 2019. The house is a single-family home, semi-detached, occupied by a young family with 2 children. The solar collector in this system is a vacuum tube collector with a gross area of 5.0 m2, which is positioned on an almost horizontal angle to minimise esthetical impact and ballast requirements. The solar collector is combined with a 300-litre buffer tank. The second heat source in this demo-system is a 16 kW air-source heat pump, which provides space heating and is the back-up heat source for domestic hot water preparation. Domestic hot water is prepared by heating the potable water on-demand with the Conico hot water station, using heat from the buffer tank.

The ‘Beusichem’ (Gelderland, the Netherlands) demonstration project for the DMP Solar System has been operational since August 2019. The house is a large detached house, occupied by a young family with 1 child. The solar collector in this system is a vacuum tube collector with a gross area of 5.0 m2, which is positioned on an almost horizontal angle to minimise esthetical impact and ballast requirements. The solar collector is combined with a 300-litre buffer tank. The second heat source in this demo-system is an 8 kW air-source heat pump, which provides space heating and is the back-up heat source for domestic hot water preparation. Domestic hot water is prepared by heating the potable water on-demand with the Conico hot water station, using heat from the buffer tank.

The ‘Strijp-S’ (Eindhoven, the Netherlands) demonstration project for the DMP Solar System has been operational since April 2020. The house is a terraced house, occupied by a young family with 2 children. The solar collector in this system is a CPC vacuum tube collector with a gross area of 6.7 m2, which is positioned on a pitched roof at an angle of 45 degrees, and is oriented in an East-South-East direction. The solar collector is combined with a 500-litre combi-tank. The second heat source in this demo-system is district heating, which provides space heating and is the back-up heat source for domestic hot water preparation. Domestic hot water is prepared by the combi-tank through its internal stainless-steel heat exchanger. District heating is switched off from mid spring till early autumn, and the goal is to test how well the system performs without a back-up heat source in this period.