Simulation of heating loads and heat pump loads of a typical suburban residential building of Beijing, China in wintertime

In recent years, Northern China suffers severe winter haze, which is attributed to extensive residential coal combustion for warm in winter. Chinese government presented proposals of the electrical energy substitute of the fossil fuels to solve the problem. However, the wide applications of electric heating utilities expose the reliability of the electrical grids on the production and transmission side particularly in extreme cold days. In this paper, we studied heating loads and electric load behaviors of an air source heat pump of a case-study suburban residential building of Beijing, China in wintertime in 2016. Firstly, we choose three characteristic days for heating loads analysis, i.e. the coldest, the warmest, and the medium day. Secondly, heating loads of the case-study building were calculated by a building energy simulation program, which is based on a coupled weather data and the building energy transfer. Hourly heating loads of the case-study building in the three characteristic days were studied based on the weather analyses. Thirdly, the electric load behaviors of the air source heat pump used for room heating were investigated. The COP of the heat pump under different operating conditions was calculated. The peak loads and the electric load fluctuations of the heat pump in wintertime were analyzed. This work provided a valuable database on heating loads and electric loads for warm in suburban area in Beijing, so as to help to achieve the electric grid safety. Copyright (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.