Assessment for central heating systems with different heat sources: A case study

This study puts forward to a comprehensive method to evaluate the environment impact and economic benefit of central heating systems. Three types of residential heating systems are compared about the energy use in one-year operation phase, including waste water heat pump system, coal boiler system and gas boiler system.The system, located in Tianjin City, China, is designed for residential buildings. The comparison is made with respect to cost, environment impact and integrated assessment. The results indicate that according to now power structure, if COP of the heat pump reaches 2.5 but lower than 3, heat pump system shows better environment performance but wastes more money than boiler heating systems. If the COP of the heat pump is above 3, heat pump heating system would have best integrated performance, i.e. it has lower cost and less environmental impact than the other systems.

► The research provided an integrated evaluation to analyze different heating systems. The analysis includes the environmental impact, cost and the integrated impact of different systems.
► The heat pump with COP above 2.5 has the better environment performance.
► Heat pump with COP above 3 has better integrated performance, including environment and cost.