Solar Energy Assists These Heat Pumps
Oct
10
In most climates, neither a heat pump nor a solar heating system can, by itself, provide all the heat a house needs.
Put the two together, and the heat pump can plumb the solar storage tank for heat, even when the tank’s liquid is much too cool for direct solar heating and the air outside is too cold for use as a heat source for the heat pump.
There are some tricks to making the combination economical, though, because the combined initial cost of the solar system and the heat pump can be considerable. The systems shown here have very dissimilar climates to contend with, but each solves the economy problem neatly, aided by high local fuel costs.
For the cold-climate house, the solar-assisted heat pump makes sense because for comfort the house needs a great deal of both heat in winter and cooling in hot, humid summers. The heat pump provides the cooling, and the solar system keeps the heat pump working efficiently during the heating season. The result: The house relies on its solar/heat pump team for almost 100 percent of its heating and a full 100 percent of its cooling needs, at a remarkable annual saving.
The mild-climate system, on the other hand, has neither great heating nor great cooling needs.
So initial costs were kept down by using one of the most inexpensive solar systems: a low-temperature pool heater with plastic panels and the already-existing pool for heat storage. The system’s efficiency was boosted by use of its heat-pump cooling cycle to add warmth to the pool during the swimming season by dumping unwanted house heat into it.
In freezing climate, an indoor solar storage tank acts as heat source for heat pump. 360 square feet of copper tube-type, double-glazed collectors surmount south-facing roof plane. Water heated in collectors keeps 5,000-gallon, heavily insulated poured-concrete storage tank in basement up to an average 70-100°F., supplying plenty of heat to heat pump. Backup is small electric water heater set to maintain storage water at 40°, plus a fireplace heat- recovery device through which storage water cycles. In summer, heat pump extracts heat from room air and uses it to heat domestic water, then dumps excess in storage tank.
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