Simulation Study of a Novel Solar Air-Source Heat Pump Heating System Based on Phase-Change Heat Storage

Abstract

A traditional solar air-source heat pump heating system cannot effectively utilize solar energy, and it consumes large amounts of energy when operating during cold nights. Accordingly, a conventional heating system has been improved by phase-change heating to form a new phase-change thermal storage solar air-source heat pump heating system. Based on the TRNSYS simulation platform, a heating simulation study of the improved phase-change heating system was carried out in Xi’an City. The results show that the addition of phase-change thermal storage technology allows the heating system to make better use of solar energy, and the efficiency of the solar collector is increased by 5.9%; the presence of the phase-change material effectively reduces the rate of temperature drop inside the water tank, making the water supply temperature more stable; during the whole heating period, the improved phase-change heating system saved 484.91 kWh of operating energy, showing a very good energy-saving effect.