Experimental Investigation on Direct Expansion Solar Assisted Heat Pump System Employing a Novel PVT Module
Abstract
The system performance of the solar assisted PVT (photovoltaic-thermal) heat pump (SA-PVT-HP) system was experimentally investigated on a typical winter day in Shanghai. A novel PVT module was employed as a solar collector/evaporator, and it showed great ability in temperature control of solar cells compared with a single PV module. The results indicated that the average COP (Coefficient of Performance) of the SA-PVT-HP system was 5.44 which is 75.5% higher than that of the conventional air source heat pump system during the operation under the solar radiation intensity of 809.7 W/m2, ambient temperature of 11 ℃. Moreover, the solar cells’ working temperature of the PVT module could be reduced from 33.7 ℃ to 4.5 ℃, and the electrical efficiency could be improved from 16.8% to 19.4% compared with a single PV module.