Domestic Solar/Heat Pump Heating Systems with Low and High Eficiency Collectors in Mediterranean Areas.

Abstract

Recently 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, and need to be improved in the configuration. These systems will be cleaner as long as the electricity will improve the renewable energy fraction and they improve its efficiency. In Mediterranean areas, where there are less months of heating, the solar thermal systems for heating have a several months with overheating; this fact is an obstacle for the designers and the users. The combination of solar-thermal collectors and heat pumps provides interesting possibilities for innovative and energy efficient heating systems with a high fraction of solar energy. Despite is high cost these systems are gaining more and more importance due to the rising cost of the limited fossil resources. Several configurations of solar systems have been studied. Some of them use cheap collectors that make the investment more attractive.