Chapter 6 - Heat Pump Heating and Cooling Systems

Abstract

This chapter performs an energy-economic analysis and compares different heating systems in terms of energy consumption, thermal comfort and environmental impact. A comparative economic analysis of heating solutions for a building is performed from a case study, and the energy and economic advantages of building heating solutions with a water-to-water heat pump (HP) are reported. The energy, economic and environmental performances of a closed-loop ground-coupled heat pump (GCHP) system is also analysed. In addition, the main performance parameters (energy efficiency and CO2 emissions) of radiators and radiant floor heating systems connected to GCHPs are compared. Furthermore, the thermal comfort for these systems is compared using the ASHRAE Thermal Comfort program and a mathematical model for numerical modelling of the thermal emission at radiant floors is developed and experimentally validated. Additionally, two numerical simulation models of useful thermal energy and the system coefficient of performance (COPsys) in heating mode are developed using the Transient Systems Simulation (TRNSYS) software. Finally, important information for control of HP heating and cooling systems is included.