Design of Heat-Pump Systems for Single- and Multi-Family Houses using a Heuristic Scheduling for the Optimization of PV Self-Consumption

Heat pumps in combination with a photovoltaic system are a very promising option for the transformation of the energy system. By using such a system for coupling the electricity and heat sectors, buildings can be heated sustainably and with low greenhouse gas emissions. This paper reveals a method f...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energies
Main Authors: Thomas Kemmler, Bernd Thomas
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-03-01
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/5/1118
Description
Summary:Heat pumps in combination with a photovoltaic system are a very promising option for the transformation of the energy system. By using such a system for coupling the electricity and heat sectors, buildings can be heated sustainably and with low greenhouse gas emissions. This paper reveals a method for dimensioning a suitable system of heat pump and photovoltaics (PV) for residential buildings in order to achieve a high level of (photovoltaic) PV self-consumption. This is accomplished by utilizing a thermal energy storage (TES) for shifting the operation of the heat pump to times of high PV power production by an intelligent control algorithm, which yields a high portion of PV power directly utilized by the heat pump. In order to cover the existing set of building infrastructure, 4 reference buildings with different years of construction are introduced for both single- and multi-family residential buildings. By this means, older buildings with radiator heating as well as new buildings with floor heating systems are included. The simulations for evaluating the performance of a heat pump/PV system controlled by the novel algorithm for each type of building were carried out in MATLAB-Simulink<sup>&#174;</sup> 2017a. The results show that 25.3% up to 41.0% of the buildings&#8217; electricity consumption including the heat pump can be covered directly from the PV-installation per year. Evidently, the characteristics of the heating system significantly influence the results: new buildings with floor heating and low supply temperatures yield a higher level of PV self-consumption due to a higher efficiency of the heat pump compared to buildings with radiator heating and higher supply temperatures. In addition, the effect of adding a battery to the system was studied for two building types. It will be shown that the degree of PV self-consumption increases in case a battery is present. However, due to the high investment costs of batteries, they do not pay off within a reasonable period.
ISSN:1996-1073