Performance of solar-assisted heat-pump systems

Abstract

Simulations have been made with SOLSIM (Howell, J. R. et al., Solar-Thermal Energy Systems. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1982) for solar and air-source heat-pump systems with energy storage in encapsulated phase-change material (PCM) packings. An experimental study was performed for a laboratory building in Trabzon, Turkey for space heating. The results indicate that the dual-source system is technically the most convenient solar heat-pump configuration, but before installing a solar-assisted heat-pum systems, a detailed economic analysis is needed.