Abstract
The article presents fundamentals, classification, configurations, functions and energy performance of Solar Assisted Heat Pump Systems—SAHP systems. “Traditional” solar active heating systems can not alone provide all the heating needs of buildings and therefore the solar heating systems can be coupled with heat pumps in one combined heating system, as can take place in a small or medium scale applications. The article describes the concept of solar assisted heat pumps. Principles of a heat pump operation based on fundamentals of thermodynamics are considered at the beginning of the article. Then applications of different renewable energy sources as low temperature energy sources of heat pumps are analyzed with focus on solar energy. Analysis of different configuration of solar assisted heat pumps takes into account: direct SAHP systems, called a direct expansion (DX) solar assisted heat pump systems (DX-SAHP); Series SAHP systems; Parallel SAHP systems; Dual source SAHP systems and others, which are a hybrid of last three configurations. Special attention is given to evaluation of energy performance of the heat pumps and the heating systems with heat pumps as their main elements. The concept of underground thermal energy storage is also presented as an option of seasonal solar energy storage. Finally photovoltaic driven heat pumps are analyzed as a new perspective technology of the SAHP systems.
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