Numerical Study on a Novel Photovoltaic/Thermal Heat Pump System

A theoretical analysis of novel direct expansion heat pump system incorporating a Photovoltaic/Thermal (PV/T) solar collector acting as the evaporator is presented in this paper. Based on energy balance of each parts of the vacuum-tube-PV sandwich and the four main components of the heat pump system, mathematical models are developed to evaluate the energy performance of the heat pump and the electrical and thermal performances of the PV cells, under the climatic conditions of the City of Nottingham, UK. The simulation results indicate that the average monthly thermal and electrical efficiencies are 0.752 and 0.155 respectively, and the average monthly COP reaches 5.35