Study on the System Design of a Solar Assisted Ground Heat Pump System Using Dynamic Simulation

Recently, the use of hybrid systems using multiple heat sources in buildings to ensure a stable energy supply and improve the system performance has gained attention. Among them, a heat pump system using both solar and ground heat was developed and various system configurations have been introduced. However, establishing a suitable design method for the solar-assisted ground heat pump (SAGHP) system including a thermal storage tank is complicated and there are few quantitative studies on the detailed system configurations. Therefore, this study developed three SAGHP system design methods considering the design factors focused on the thermal storage tank. Using dynamic energy simulation code (TRNSYS 17), individual performance analysis models were developed and long-term quantitative analysis was carried out to suggest optimum design and operation methods. As a result, it was found that SYSTEM 2 which is a hybrid system with heat storage tank for only a solar system showed the highest average heat source temperature of 14.81 °C, which is about 11 °C higher than minimum temperature in SYSTEM 3. Furthermore, the best coefficient of performance (COP) values of heat pump and system were 5.23 and 4.32 in SYSYEM 2, using high and stable solar heat from a thermal storage tank. Moreover, this paper considered five different geographical and climatic locations and the SAGHP system worked efficiently in having high solar radiation and cool climate zones and the system COP was 4.51 in the case of Winnipeg (Canada) where the highest heating demand is required.