Heat Pump System with Uncovered and Free Ventilated Covered Collectors in Combination with a Small Ice Storage

AbstractIn the past years research and development for heat pumps in combination with solar thermal collectors for preparation of domestic hot water and space heating increased. In this work it is analyzed how low solar irradiation and ambient air can be used as heat sources. Three different systems were modeled and simulated in TRNSYS. One of the systems is a basic parallel solar and air source heat pump combination which is sold today on the market. The other two systems use solar collectors in combination with an ice storage as the only heat source of the heat pump. One of the variants uses unglazed selective coated absorbers and the other variant uses covered collectors with controlled natural ventilation on both sides of the absorber. All systems have been sized to have the same costs for the end consumer. The heat load corresponded to a single family house that was simulated in six different climates. The simulation results show that unglazed collectors and a brine heat pump in combination with a 400 liter ice storage can reach a better performance than the reference. The natural ventilated collector didn’t show significant advantages compared to the unglazed collectors or the reference system