Analysis of different heat pumping technologies integrating small scale solid oxide fuel cell system for more efficient building heating systems

Starting from performance data of commercial appliances (vapour compression and absorption heat pumps) and from performance experimentally measured at the CNR ITAE for appliances at prototyping level (adsorption heat pump and SOFC), a numerical model has been developed in TRNSYS. Simulations performed demonstrated that the overall yearly efficiency can be improved up to 30%, exploiting the heat released by the micro CHP to reduce the heat produced by the heat pump.