Energy and economic comparisons of air-to-air heat pumps and conventional heating systems for the Turkish climate

Abstract

In order to investigate the energy performance of air-to-air heat pumps for residential heating in the Black Sea region of Turkey, an experimental set-up was constructed. An electrically driven air-to-air heat pump was used for heating a laboratory building with a floor of 75 m 2. The experimental results were obtained for December, January, February, March, April and May of the 1991–1992 heating season. The experimentally obtained results are used to calculate the heat pump's coefficient of performance (COP). Actual experimental performance data were used to generate third-order polynomials relating the heat pump's COP to the outdoor air temperature. Also, economic comparisons were made of the heat pump's performance with electrical resistance, oil, gas and coal-fired heating systems, using an annualised life-cycle costing method. This showed that the heat pump offers economic advantages over the oil and coal-fired boiler systems, but is not an economic alternative to the gas-fired heating system. Because the unit price of the gas is 3·84 times less than that for electricity, to become competitive with a gas-fired boiler, either the capital cost of the heat pump must be substantially reduced or its seasonal COP increased by about 60%: it should also be driven by a gas engine rather than an electric engine.