Performance study on photovoltaic/thermal solar-assisted heat pump system

This paper reports the energy and exergy performance of a photovoltaic/thermal solar-assisted heat pump system (PV/T-SAHPS) with different solar radiation levels. From the heat pump, the solar evaporator/collector extracts the thermal energy required, while the cooling effect of the refrigerant reduces the working temperature of the PV cells. Therefore, this integrated PV/T-SAHPS exhibits a relatively high thermal performance with improved coefficient of performance (COP) and PV efficiency. The Engineering Equation Solver tool embedded with the Hottel-Whillier equation was used to stimulate the system to quantify the enhancement of heat transfer due to the use of a refrigerant (R134a). Simulation results indicated that the maximum efficiency of the hourly electricity generation of the PV system could reach 11.56% at 1000 W/m(2), the average electrical efficiency was 11.88%, and the maximum efficiency of the hourly thermal generation was 88.68% when the solar irradiance variation ranges from 300 to 1000 W/m(2). The maximum PV panel temperature was 35.68 degrees C at 14:00. The average values of COP and COPex were 6.14 and 1.49, respectively. These result indicated that the heat pump system performance is relatively high.