Techno-economic analysis of air source heat pump combined with latent thermal energy storage applied for space heating in China

In order to improve the heating performance of conventional air source heat pump system operated in cold regions, an air source heat pump system combined with latent thermal energy storage (ASHPLTES) has been proposed in the previous work. In this paper, a techno-economic analysis of ASHPLTES was carried out in four typical cities of China and compared with quasi-two-stage ASHP (QTASHP) system, coal fired boiler, wall-hanging gas boiler, and direct electric heating. Mathematical models were developed to evaluate the energy, environmental, and economic performances of different heating systems. The results showed that heat pump systems such as QTASHP and ASHPLTES were suitable for space heating due to the advantages of energy saving and environmental protection, although the initial and running cost of heat pump systems was higher than that of conventional heating systems. However, the currently high cost of heat pump systems could be reduced by the increasing productivity and the governmental subsidy. In addition, the static payback period of ASHPLTES compared with QTASHP in Harbin will be cut down to around 6 years if the discount percentage of LTES unit is set as 40%, which indicated that ASHPLTES will be a better choice in severe cold region of China.