Experimental Performance Evaluation of a Solar-Assisted Heat Pump Driven by PV/T Panels in Real Ambient Conditions
Abstract
This work summarizes the performance of a solar-assisted heat pump that consists of a water-to-water heat pump and hybrid photovoltaic thermal panels. This concept leads to better performance of the heat pump, due to higher water temperature, and higher thermal and electrical efficiencies of the solar field, thanks to lower working temperatures. A detailed experimental campaign was conducted in an outdoor laboratory in real ambient conditions to evaluate the performance of the whole system. Results show a high coefficient of performance, higher than the one of a standard air-source heat pump in the majority of the experimentations, than reaches the value of 4.5 with a condenser inlet temperature equal to 30 °C. From the solar panels point of view, high thermal efficiency is achieved when the coolant fluid temperature is near the ambient temperature.