Combination of solar collectors and ground-source heat pump for small buildings

The combination of solar heat and ground-source heat pumps in dwellings gives opportunities for optimising the use of renewable energy sources and minimize the share of bought energy. Solar collectors in the system may give advantages for the operational conditions both for the solar collectors and for the heat pump. The aim of this project was to analyse different variables such as energy demand, building types, climate, geological conditions, system design and control. The study has been carried out with TRNSYS simulations for Swedish climate and building conditions. The results from the computer simulations so far, shows that there is an obvious risk that the use of electricity for the circulation pumps is larger than the decrease of electricity use for the heat pump and the auxiliary heater. It is most important that the system is optimised in order to restrict the total use of electricity