Experimental Study on the Heat Pump Performance Combined with Dual-Purpose Solar Collector

Abstract

In this study, we proposed and experimentally investigated a novel solar-assisted heat pump (SAHP) system integrated with a dual-purpose solar collector (DPSC). The DPSC is a solar collector designed to produce both heated air and hot water, and the proposed configuration of the SAHP utilizes both heated air and water simultaneously to improve the performance of the heat pump. The experiment was conducted under natural weather conditions on a clear day. The performance of the proposed system was evaluated and compared to that of a conventional air-type SAHP system. The results showed that the coefficient of performance (COP) of the proposed system, which takes into account the performance of the DPSC, heat pump, and the power consumption of both the blower and pump, was 3.14. In contrast, the system COP of the SAHP operated as conventional air-type SAHP was 2.33. This finding clearly demonstrated that the proposed SAHP performed better than the traditional SAHP mode. Additionally, the results of this research are useful as fundamental data related to SAHP combined with DPSC.