Numerical study on ground source heat pump integrated with phase change material cooling storage system in office building

Abstract

Ground source heat pump (GSHP) integrated with phase change material (PCM) cooling storage system could shift peak load and save electricity charge. This paper studied the optimal control method of GSHP system integrated with PCM cooling storage tank in an office building in Wuhan, China. The energy performance and economic analysis of this combined system under different cooling storage ratios (the ratio of PCM cooling storage tank capacity to total system cooling capacity) were analyzed. The optimal operation mode and optimal cooling storage ratio were obtained for this combined system. Considering initial investment and operation cost, the optimal cooling storage ratio was 40% by numerical study. The annual cost of the GSHP combined PCM cooling storage system under cooling storage ratio of 40% was reduced by 34.2% compared with common GSHP hybrid cooling tower (CT) system.