A novel heating system of solar-assisted enhanced jet enthalpy air source heat pump for cold regions

•A new integrated system of solar-assisted jet enthalpy pump is proposed.•The performances of the new system and the traditional system are compared.•The new integrated system enhances the jet effect and low-temperature adaptability.•The new integrated approach improves heat output by 45.8% and COP by 22.5%•The new system is superior to the traditional systems within the scope of the study. Solar energy and air source heat pumps are common heat sources for clean heating, but at lower ambient temperatures, the performance of solar energy and air source heat pumps will decline significantly, which can be ameliorated by integrating the two heat sources. However, the range of solar radiation and ambient temperature variation is very wide, and the existing integration methods cannot guarantee that they are optimal over a wide range. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel integration method of solar energy and jet enthalpy air source heat pump suitable for cold regions, where solar energy is used to heat the refrigerant in the jet branch to increase the flow rate of the jet branch, which enhances the effect of jet enthalpy. Under varying outdoor temperatures and solar radiations, the performances of the new integrated system and the traditional integrated systems are compared by simulation method. The results show that within the scope of this study (outdoor temperatures ranging from −30 °C to 10 °C, and radiations from 200 to 800 W/m2), the heat output and coefficient of performance of the new system are higher than those of the existing integrated systems. At an outdoor temperature of −30 °C and a radiation of 500 W/m2, the new system increases heat output by 45.8 % and coefficient of performance by 22.5 % compared with the existing two systems. This research can promote the application of solar energy and air source heat pump heating in cold regions.