Techno-Economic Evaluation of PVT-Sourced Heat Pump Systems: Can Solar Compete with Air and Ground in Cold Climates?
Abstract
There are various ways to integrate solar photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) collectors with heat pumps, but using the PVT array as the sole source offers unique advantages: eliminating noise from air-source units and avoiding the cost and land use of ground-source boreholes. This study investigates the performance of six PVT absorber designs—glazed and unglazed, finned and unfinned, metal and polymer—used as the only heat source for a brine-water heat pump in a cold climate. TRNSYS simulations are carried out to evaluate seasonal performance factor (SPF), thermal yield, and auxiliary heater demand. Results show that designs that enhance heat capture from ambient air, such as finned designs, outperform those that prioritize solar gains. Ongoing work includes flow rate and array size optimization, as well as diving into the economic performance of the different collectors.
Keywords
solar hybrids, solar heat pumps, techno-economic analysis.