Publications
Here you will find an extract of different publications about Polysun.
If you understand German, have a look at this site for other publications.

October 2012 | Master Thesis – School of Engineering Waterford Institute of Technology
Commercial Solar Water Heating Systems: Design review of two of Ireland’s largest commercial Solar Water Heating Systems
Results of questionnaires sent to designers and installers of the systems indicated that Tsol and Polysun were the main simulation software’s used in Ireland. The two simulation software were compared and analysed. Polysun proved to be a more complete package with an option to create custom hydraulic diagrams to exactly match the system being simulated. The weather file used in Polysun also interpolates the location of the system rather than using nearby weather station data. It was concluded that some simulation software’s such as Polysun do offer an optimised design solution for solar water heating systems in Ireland but careful consideration must be given to select one that does.
October 21, 2011 | Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control ETH Zürich
Optimal Design of Building Energy Systems under Parameter
Uncertainty
The performance of complex energy systems in future building technology strongly depends on the correct design and sizing of its components. Deterministic model-based optimization techniques for the design and sizing of such systems are widely adopted even though exact values for most model parameters are a-priori not known or uncertain. These uncertainties can cause large performance losses compared to the nominal case. A methodology to find robust optimal solutions is discussed in this publication.
October 12-14, 2011 | Publication at the 4th International Conference on Solar Air-Conditioning
Commercial Heat Driven Chillers in Polysun: Modeling and Validation
In this work, three different commercial heat driven chillers are integrated into Polysun, namely the machines of ClimateWell, Sortech and Phoenix Sonnenwärme. The modelling procedure is discussed and the validation with measurement results is shown. Furthermore, it is discussed how Polysun can be used for the dissemination of heat driven chillers in commercial applications.
Publication in the Elsevier journal «Energy» 2011
Optimal sizing of a solar thermal building installation using particle swarm optimization
In a research collaboration between ETH Zurich and Vela Solaris a new methodology is developed for finding the optimal size of the main components for a solar thermal system. In this publication, whe use of the particle swarm optimization algorithm is proposed and the results obtained are compared with a genetic algorithm solution. Further, the relative influence of certain system parameters on the optimal configuration is investigated by means of a sensitivity analysis where the size of the collector is shown to have the greatest influence on all main output quantities while the size of the auxiliary power unit presents a relatively small influence on the solution.
Finally, it is demonstrated that the accurate sizing of the energy components is necessary to minimize the energy consumption and cost of installation, while maximizing the solar fraction. The proposed methodology is shown to successfully solve the problem.
September 28 – October 1, 2010 | EuroSun Conference on Solar Heating
Polysun Inside: A Universal Platform for Commercial Software and Research Applications
A publication to demonstrated the versatility and high potential of the Polysun Inside platform. It is shown how the well-established Polysun simulation kernel and databases can be integrated into other software tools. Furthermore, Polysun Inside is the basis for online acces as well as script-based applications like MATLAB or GENOPT.
June 14-17, 2010 | ECOS Conference
Particle Swarm Optimization for the Optimal Sizing of a Solar Thermal Building Installation
In this paper a methodology is presented for finding the optimal size of the main components for a solar thermal system where particular attention is given to the optimization framework.
April 29-30, 2010 | OTTI PV-Hybrid and Mini-Grid Conference
PV, Wind and Power-Heat-Cogeneration in one Design Tool
Polysun is a well established standard software for a wide range of de-centralized power generation components targeting at planners and engineers. In this work, present and future features of the simulation tool Polysun are discussed. In particular, it is intended to optimize the new features for power-heat-cogeneration and wind generators that currently are still in the R&D state at Vela Solaris.
September 30 – October 2, 2009 | OTTI Solar Air-Conditioning Conference
Modeling and analyzing solar cooling systems in Polysun
A broad study on thermal behavior of solar-assisted single-effect absorption
system coupled to the real-time cooling load of different buildings located in
several climates was established by using dynamic simulating software Polysun.
September 2-3, 2009 | CISBAT Conference
Simulation Tool for Architects
The two software programs Lesosai and Polysun form the basis for the project and offers an improved planning tool as a response to the demand for active and passive solar architecture.
May 25-26, 2009 | ESTEC
Teaching Solar Thermal System Design by use of Simulation Software
Experiences with the Polysun Educational Package
May 25-26, 2009 | ESTEC
Design Methodology for Combined Solar and Geothermal Heating Systems
With integration of the heat pump as a new component in the simulation software Polysun, a new tool becomes available, which covers the entire range from combined solar and geothermal heating systems for single family houses up to big commercial installations.
June 5, 2009 | BFE
Development and Measurement based Validation of a new Gasboiler Model
Development of a realistic model for gas-boilers(physical approach). More reliable planning of efficient heating systems.