Performance analysis of a solar thermal system coupled with a ground source heat pump in Nordic conditions

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to investigate the energy and exergy performance of a solar assisted ground source heat pump for a school building designed according to Norwegian passive house standard. The system is designed in such a way that the solar collector prioritizes to provide heat to the hot water tank and whenever there is excess heat from the solar collector it can be used to charge the ground borehole. A detailed thermodynamic analysis of the system has been carried out in Engineering Equation Solver (EES). Isobutane (R600a), propane (R290), ammonia (R717) and solstice (R1234ze(E)) have been investigated as working fluid for the heat pump. The result revealed that the solar collector and the different working media have affected both the COP and the exergy of the system. Moreover, the mass flow rate of the brine and the length of the borehole affect the performance of the system.