Design and Performance Assessment of a Prefabricated BIPV/T Roof System Coupled with a Heat Pump
Abstract
This paper describes the design, development and simulated performance of a building integrated photovoltaic/thermal (BIPV/T) roof system, coupled with a water-to-water heat pump. This system is installed on a prefabricated low-energy house, designed for the Solar Decathlon China 2018 contest. The open-loop, air-based BIPV/T roof system is fully integrated and is based on the design of a curtain wall BIPV/T prototype. The preheated air collected by the system is driven through a custom manifold to an air-to-water heat recovery ventilator (HRV) unit which is in turn linked to the cold storage tank of the heat pump. The objective of this paper is to provide insight on the design and performance of fully integrated BIPV/T roof systems and introduce concepts of modular prefabrication of such systems. The performance of the coupled BIPV/T-heat pump system was modelled in TRNSYS. Keywords: Building-integrated photovoltaic/thermal, prefabricated net-zero house, modelling, TRNSYS.