IEA HPP ANNEX 32 – RESEARCH FOR HEAT PUMPS IN LOW ENERGY HOUSES

Low energy houses are seen as a key technology for the reduction of CO2-emissions and have growing market shares in many countries. Residential heat pumps have increasing market shares in new buildings, as well, particularly in low energy buildings. However, there are still development potentials for existing system solutions in terms of component and system performance as well as system integration and func-tionality. IEA HPP Annex 32 is to accomplish research to explore the promising market of heat pump solutions for low energy houses. This paper gives an introduction to the Annex 32 framework of object-tives, project structures and national contributions. First results of the Swiss national project, which is dedicated to the integration of passive and active cooling functions, yielded a standardised hydronic con-figuration of ground-coupled heat pumps for space heating,-cooling and domestic hot water, which sim-plifies the variety of marketable configurations. Design guidelines for the dimensioning of the compo-nents and the control have been derived by various simulation studies. Design of the borehole heat ex-changer for space heating is sufficient to cover most of the cooling load in passive cooling. Moreover, the reachable comfort and additional costs of the system solution have been evaluated. Even under extreme summer conditions the indoor air temperatures can be kept below 28°C by a combination of shading, passive ground cooling and night-time ventilation