A Solar Dually PVT Driven Direct Expansion Heat Pump One-Year Field Operation Results at Continental Climate

Abstract

The high energy-consuming building sector needs to meet both electricity and heat demands. In a nearly zero energy building scenario, most of the consumed energy would be generated locally by means of renewable solutions that nowadays seem not to provide an attractive performance or cost-competitiveness. Solar-based technologies tend to be the most promising ones, but for high densely populated areas, the usual photovoltaic or thermal single approaches may not be efficient enough. The current work is focused on the analysis of the dual use of the solar resource by means of hybrid PVT collectors and their smart combination with direct expansion heat pumps through predictive control strategies. To that end, a system was developed, installed in a real-use single-family house at a continental climate for domestic hot water application, operated and monitored for one entire year. The average day indicator results show 83% renewable energy share, 220% self-sufficiency ratio, 41% heat pump self-consumption and 46% of the solar fraction.