Solar and Heat Pumps Systems . IEA SHC Task 4 - HPP Annex 38 - Status after 1.5 Years
Abstract
Over the past few years, systems that combine solar thermal technology and heat pumps have been marketed to heat houses and produce domestic hot water. This new combination of technologies is a welcome advancement, but standards and norms are still required for its long term successful commercialization. At this time, most of the manufacturers are developing systems without a clear framework of what could be the best combinations of the two worlds and customers are lacking comparative approaches. The result is that systems reaching today the market are far from being optimized and sometimes simple enough to guarantee a lifetime problem free and efficient operation both technically and economically. What is needed is a systematic analysis of the different possible systems and their potential for application in different climates and under different boundary conditions. To begin to tackle this, the SHC Programme has launched Task 44, Systems using solar thermal energy in combination with heat pumps (HP+Solar), a joint effort with the Heat Pump Programme under the name Annex 38. The scope of this new Task, which has begun in 2010 and will end in 2013, is on the following items: