Design Method and Performance of Heat Pumps With Refrigerant-Filled Solar Collectors

Abstract

A general procedure is presented for estimating the seasonal performance of solar-assisted heat pumps with refrigerant-filled collectors. The procedure accounts for variations in collector design and orientation and also for heat pump capacity and efficiency. The results from this design procedure for space heating applications are compared against those for both conventional heat pumps and liquid solar systems. The effects of collector area and design, heat pump size and degradation due to cycling, and energy storage are discussed. For space heating, uncovered collector heat pump systems have better performance than both conventional air-source heat pumps and covered collector heat pump systems over a wide range of collector areas. The cooling performance of a collector heat pump system is inferior to that of conventional heat pumps.