Abstract
Abstract Heating application efficiency is a crucial point for saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Today, EU legal framework conditions clearly define how heating systems should perform, how buildings should be designed in an energy efficient manner and how renewable energy sources should be used. Using heat pumps (HP) as an alternative “Renewable Energy System” could be one solution for increasing efficiency, using less energy, reducing the energy dependency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This scientific article will take a closer look at the different efficiency dependencies of such geothermal HP (GHP) systems for domestic buildings (small/medium HP). Manufacturers of HP appliances must document the efficiency, so called COP (Coefficient of Performance) in the EU under certain standards. In technical datasheets of HP appliances, these COP parameters give a clear indication of the performance quality of a HP device. HP efficiency (COP) and the efficiency of a working HP system can vary significantly. For this reason, an annual efficiency statistic named “Seasonal Performance Factor” (SPF) has been defined to get an overall efficiency for comparing HP Systems. With this indicator, conclusions can be made from an installation, economy, environmental, performance and a risk point of view. A technical and economic HP model shows the dependence of energy efficiency problems in HP systems. To reduce the complexity of the HP model, only the important factors for efficiency dependencies are used. Dynamic and static situations with HP´s and their efficiency are considered. With the latest data from field tests of HP Systems and the practical experience over the last 10 years, this information will be compared with one of the latest simulation programs with the help of two practical geothermal HP system calculations. With the result of the gathered empirical data, it allows for a better estimate of the HP system efficiency, their economic costs and benefits and their environmental impact.
Highlights
Finding reliable energy sources and increasing energy efficiency are two of the most important challenges facing humankind
The results demonstrated that the efficiency difference between the maximum and minimum Seasonal Performance Factor” (SPF) lies between 40 % and 90% from the average SPF figure
The efficiency of geothermal HP (GHP) and air/water heat pumps (HP) systems is dependent on a variation of different factors of influence
Summary
Finding reliable energy sources and increasing energy efficiency are two of the most important challenges facing humankind. External factors are: climate conditions, operation hours, room temperature levels, heating demand versus heating power, human behaviour, thermal loses through wrong insulation habits on pipes and puffer tanks, oversizing/undersizing HP, primary energy source (fossil, RES), design layout (Tanţău et al, 2014), greenhouse gas emissions and calculation procedures These factors will be used in the different boundaries B1‐B4 for a HP System (see Figure 7). With the information of the savings potential, an investment calculation can be done over a period of time, with the help of static and dynamical calculation methods (see Figure 9) Another method could be a live time cost analysis for HPs and the complete system in comparison with alternative heating systems Another method could be a live time cost analysis for HPs and the complete system in comparison with alternative heating systems (Ness, 2007; Coennenberg, 2008, p. 583; Ala‐Risku and Kopri, 2008; Rebitzer, 2003)
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