Indirect expansion solar assisted heat pump system for hot water production with latent heat storage and applicable control strategy

Integration of renewable energy with energy conversion application for hot water production is a significant technology to be studied for industrial, commercial and residential proposes. It has been further enhanced since the international energy agency (IEA) puts effort to standardize such kind of technology. In this paper, a novel study has been carried out experimentally to control an indirect solar assisted heat pump (IDX-SAHP) system integrated with a latent heat storage (PCM) tank. The PCM heat exchanger tank was designed specially and controlled automatically which allowed storing excess energy during the day and releasing it when needed. In addition, a system control strategy has been purposely designed and implemented in a Building Management System (BMS) to ensure the stable and reliable system operations. The experimental results show that the PCM heat exchanger tank installation has a significant effect on the system operation stability and can improve the COP of the IDX-SAHP system at different weather conditions and a specified hot water load profile.