Energy Conversion and Management 77 (2014) 550–557

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Solar-assisted heat pump – A sustainable system for low-temperature

water heating applications
S.K. Chaturvedi a, V.D. Gagrani b, T.M. Abdel-Salam c,⇑
a
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA
b
DNV KEMA Energy and Sustainability, Philadelphia, USA
c
Department of Engineering, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Direct expansion solar assisted heat pump systems (DX-SAHP) have been widely used in many applica-
Received 13 June 2013 tions including water heating. In the DX-SAHP systems the solar collector and the heat pump evaporator
Accepted 29 September 2013 are integrated into a single unit in order to transfer the solar energy to the refrigerant. The present work is
aimed at studying the use of the DX-SAHP for low temperature water heating applications. The novel
aspect of this paper involves a detailed long-term thermo-economic analysis of the energy conservation
Keywords: potential and economic viability of these systems. The thermal performance is simulated using a com-
Solar-assisted
puter program that incorporates location dependent radiation, collector, economic, heat pump and load
Heat pump
Water heating
data. The economic analysis is performed using the life cycle cost (LCC) method. Results indicate that the
Life cycle cost DX-SAHP water heaters systems when compared to the conventional electrical water heaters are both
Low temperature applications economical as well as energy conserving. The analysis also reveals that the minimum value of the system
life cycle cost is achieved at optimal values of the solar collector area as well as the compressor displace-
ment capacity. Since the cost of SAHP system presents a barrier to mass scale commercialization, the
results of the present study indicating that the SAHP life cycle cost can be minimized by optimizing
the collector area would certainly be helpful in lowering, if not eliminating, the economic barrier to these
systems. Also, at load temperatures higher than 70 °C, the performance of the single stage heat pump
degrades to the extent that its cost and efficiency advantages over the electric only system are lost.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In recent decades, global energy consumption has increased
substantially. A major part of the global energy consumption comes
from conventional energy sources such as fossil fuels. In 2004, the
total worldwide energy consumption was 15 TW (=1.5  1013 W)
with 86.5% from fossil fuels [1]. However, combustion of fossil fuels
involves production of carbon dioxide and other gases that cause
the greenhouse effect, leading to global warming. The atmospheric
concentration of CO2 has increased by 31% above pre-industrial lev-
els since 1750 [2]. Growing demand for petroleum-based fossil
fuels has led to concerns that they may be depleted in the next
two decades to a level that would cause a major disruption in the
energy supply chain. As a result, finding alternative energy sources
that are cleaner as well as economical has become a critical societal
need which led to the development of renewable energy sources,
such as solar and wind, in recent years.
The United States is the world’s largest energy user, consuming
100 quadrillion BTU (29,000 TW h). About twenty-one percent of
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 252 328 9649; fax: +1 252 737 1041.
E-mail address: abdelsalamt@ecu.edu (T.M. Abdel-Salam).
this total energy is used in the residential sector [3]. Water heating
alone accounts for about 20% of the energy consumed in a typical
American household and about 2.6% of the total energy consumed
in commercial building in the United States [4]. It is estimated that
nearly 7% of the total US energy consumption is in the form of low
temperature (<80 °C) water heating applications in which energy
demand is met primarily through either natural gas or electrical
resistance heaters. For instance, in the residential sector nearly
70% of water heating needs are met through natural gas heaters
and about 20% through electrical resistance heaters [5]. However,
the use of these conventional systems involves carbon emission,
either directly or indirectly, into the earth’s atmosphere. For in-
stance, a natural gas water heater typically contributes about
2 tons of CO2 annually to the atmosphere. Electric hot water sys-
tems are particularly deleterious to the environment since they
are indirectly responsible for about three times the emission of
CO2 for each kW h of electrical energy, compared to natural gas.
So why are electric hot water heaters still in use? According to
the US Energy Information Agency there are nearly 40 million
households with electric hot water heaters [1]. In the United States
the reason for their presence in the market place has to do with
their very low capital cost compared to other alternatives. Even

0196-8904/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2013.09.050
 S.K. Chaturvedi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 77 (2014) 550–557 551

Nomenclature

Ac solar collector surface area (m2) Q_ load thermal load (W)

COPH coefficient of performance for heating Q_ solar solar energy absorbed by the refrigerant (W)
COPeffective effective coefficient of performance VD volume displacement (m3/s)
DHW domestic hot water v specific volume (m3/kg)
DX-SAHP direct expansion solar assisted heat pump s specific entropy (J/kg k)
fAux fraction of the auxiliary energy SAHP solar assisted heat pump
fsolar fraction of the solar energy T temperature (°C)
F0 solar collector efficiency factor T1 collector temperature (°C)
h specific enthalpy (J/kg) Ta ambient temperature (°C)
Icoll averaged instantaneous radiation in the collector plane T max average maximum air temperature (°C)
(W/m2) T min average minimum temperature (°C)
K specific heat ratio UL overall heat loss coefficient of the solar collector (W/m2)
KT monthly average clearance index W _ Aux auxiliary power (W)
LCC life cycle cost Wcomp work compressor (J/kg)
H average solar radiation on horizontal surface _ comp
W compressor power (W)
m_ coll collector mass flow rate (kg/s) TMY typical meteorological year
P pressure (kPa) U latitude of location (°)
PER primary energy ratio gcoll collector efficiency
PERelect primary electrical energy ratio gcomp compressor efficiency
PERSAHP primary solar assisted heat pump energy ratio gth thermal efficiency
PW present worth gtrans electrical transmission efficiency
Q_ Aux auxiliary thermal energy (W) sa transmittance-absorptance product
Q_ H thermal energy delivered by the heat pump (W)

though their operating cost is higher compared to alternatives such
as natural gas water heaters, some consumers still prefer them due
to their low initial cost. However, due to implicit environmental
cost for remediation or sequestering of CO2 emission from fossil
fuel burners it is worthwhile to look at alternatives such as renew-
able energy sources that operate with reduced or very little CO2
emission. Ideally a sustainability consideration of these renewable
energy systems should entail two broad elements: (a) reduction or
elimination of primary energy (coal, natural gas, etc.) consumption
through substitution of renewable energy sources to achieve re-
duced CO2 emission and (b) economic competitiveness demon-
strated through a life cycle cost analysis. These aspects will be
discussed in more detail in later sections of this paper.
2. The proposed system and scope of study
In the present study, a direct expansion solar-assisted SAHP sys-
tem is used for water heating applications as an alternative to elec-
tric or natural gas water heater. The theory and operational aspects
of this system have been described in the literature and the readers
can find details in Refs. [6–42]. The present study is focused on the
long-term thermo-economic analysis of the SAHP system to evalu-
ate both the energy conservation potential as well as the economic
viability of these systems. Aspects pertaining to the system life cy-
cle costs (LCC) and effective resource utilization as characterized
by the primary energy ratio are analyzed.
The direct expansion SAHP water heating system (DX-SAHP) is
a combination of a solar collector and a heat pump in which the
collector also acts as the heat pump evaporator. Such integration
is not only cost effective due to elimination of a heat exchanger re-
quired in convention SAHP systems that use water-based collec-
tors. It is noteworthy that the use of a refrigerant as both the
working fluid of the heat pump and as the collector results in
quenching of the collector. This causes the collector to operate at
a temperature low enough to boost the solar energy collection effi-
ciency, yet it is high enough to enhance the heat pump perfor-
mance compared to an air source heat pump [9]. This has
implications for both reduced capital cost of the solar collector as
well as lowered heat pump operating costs due to enhanced heat
pump coefficient of performance (COPH) compared to the conven-
tional air source heat pump.
A refrigerant with low boiling point, R-134a, is employed as the
working fluid in the cycle shown schematically in Fig. 1 and on a
T–s diagram in Fig. 2. The system consists of four main components
employed in a typical vapor compression refrigeration cycle
namely; an evaporator, compressor, condenser, and an expansion
valve. In the present system the heat pump evaporator also dou-
bles up as the solar collector. The fin-tube evaporator is exposed
directly to the sun. The incident solar energy, ends-up being ab-
sorbed by the liquid refrigerant after making it’s way through the
fin section between the tubes that carry the refrigerant. So process
4–1 involves constant pressure evaporation of sub-cooled liquid
into saturated vapor at section 1. In the process 2–3, the refrigerant
is compressed from evaporator pressure to condensing pressure.
This is followed by the constant pressure process 3–4 in which
the refrigerant is desuperheated and condensed to the saturation
liquid state. During this process, the latent heat of condensation
is transferred to water circulating through the condenser. After
the condenser, the refrigerant passes through a throttle valve that
leads to flashing of the refrigerant, creating a mixture of liquid and
vapor states. The thermal analysis of the DX-SAHP system can be
performed using different configurations of solar collectors. The
bare solar collectors have relatively lower initial cost, but their per-
formance is adversely impacted by higher energy losses [9]. Single-
cover solar collectors have relatively higher initial cost, but the
associated heat losses are relatively small compared to that from
bare collectors. This translates into higher solar collector efficiency
and higher overall system efficiency. In this study we have used a
single cover flat plate solar collector.
3. Long-term thermal analysis
Thermal performance of the SAHP system is primarily indicated
by parameters such as heat pump coefficient of performance
(COPH), the system effective coefficient of performance of
(COPeffective), and primary energy ratio (PER). All these parameters
552 S.K. Chaturvedi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 77 (2014) 550–557

Fig. 1. Schematic of solar-assisted heat pump system.

T 4. The compressor model

The compressor work, Wcomp, or the compressor power

2 W_ comp ð¼ m
_ ref: W comp Þ for a given pressure ratio P2/P1 is determined
from the expression,
 " k1 #
P1 v 1 k P2 k
W comp ¼ 1 ð1Þ
3 gcomp k1 P1

4 1
s cient of performance of the heat pump (COPH) is inversely related
Fig. 2. T–s diagram for the solar assisted heat pump system.
are evaluated for specified geographical location based on chosen
condensing temperature (T3). The thermal performance of the
proposed system is analyzed for the city of Norfolk VA, USA. In
order to predict the long-term averaged thermal performance of
the system, monthly averaged instantaneous values of radiation
in the collector plane ðIcoll Þ are calculated for each hour from the
long-term averaged daily solar data for the Norfolk location. From
the radiation values ðIcoll Þ, the hourly performance of the system is
calculated for an entire day in the middle of the chosen month. The
hourly performance parameters are integrated to yield daily,
monthly and yearly performance data. The system analysis makes
use of the typical meteorological year (TMY) data which includes
for many locations, the long-term climatic mean conditions such
as the monthly average daily solar radiation on a horizontal surface
ðHÞ, the monthly average clearness index ðK T Þ, and the monthly
average maximum and minimum air temperature ðT max and T min Þ
and the latitude of the location (a) [43]. The air temperature
variation during the day is calculated by assuming a sinusoidal
function to represent the air temperature variation during the
collector operating hours. The solar radiation model for calculation
radiation in the collector plane ðIcoll Þ is described in some details in
Ref. [43]. The radiation module takes into account the available
solar energy that can be captured by the collector based on mete-
orological data obtained for the specified geographical location.
Output of radiation model is in the form of available solar energy
(Icoll) at a specified slope angle of the collector. The system data
used in the analysis are given in Table 1.
where k is the ratio of specific heats, and for R-134a it has a value of
1.106. The assumption of ideal gas behavior during the compression
process turns out to be fairly reasonable since the compressor work
calculated in this manner is somewhat overestimated compared to
the compressor work calculated directly from the refrigerant prop-
erty tables. The extent of overestimation is roughly 5–7% for the
range of pressure ratios considered in this study. Since the coeffi-
to the compressor work, this leads to conservative or underesti-
mated values of COPH. The thermodynamic properties at state
points 1 and 3 are calculated from curve fitting the thermodynamic
table data, using polynomial functions.
5. The collector model
The collector model is used to determine the collector temper-
ature T1 for given values of ambient temperature Ta and Icoll , collec-
tor parameters (sa, F0 , Ac and UL), refrigerant properties h1 and h2
and the heat pump parameters (the displacement volume rate
VD). The steady state energy balance on the collector, expressed
by Eq. (2), states that the net energy absorbed by the refrigerant
circulating through the collector equals incident solar radiation
minus the heat loss from the collector.
VD
ðh1  h3 Þ ¼ F 0 Ac ½Icoll ðsaÞ  U L ðT 1  T a Þ ð2Þ
v1
From the above equation one can solve for T1 as
Icoll ðsaÞ VD ðh1  h4 Þ
T1 ¼ Ta þ  ð3Þ
UL v 1 UL F 0 Ac
Since h1 and v1 are functions of collector temperature T1, the proce-
dure for solving for T1 is iterative.
A computer program, incorporating location dependent radia-
tion data, collector data, economic data, heat pump and load data,
was developed and implemented. A flow chart for the program is
given in Fig. 3.
 S.K. Chaturvedi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 77 (2014) 550–557 553

Table 1
Standard system parameters for thermal analysis.

Parameter Value
1 Condensing temperature 60 °C (variable)
2 Collector area 3 m2 (variable)
3 Collector slope 36.9°
4 Collector efficiency factor 0.85
5 Transmittance-absorptance product 0.9
6 Collector heat loss coefficient 6 W/°C m2
7 Compressor efficiency 0.8
8 Compressor displacement 0.0003518 m3/s (variable)
9 Number of persons in house 4
10 Ground reflectance 0.2
11 Average hot water consumption per 0.07571 m3/day (20 Gal/
person day)

For a given location, all the data described above are provided as
inputs. First the value of the collector temperature at a given time
of the day is assumed and values of enthalpies at state points 1 and
4 are calculated from the polynomial fit for the refrigerant proper-
ties. From the collector model (Eq. (2)), a new value of T1 is calcu-
lated and compared with the previously assumed value of T1. This
iterative procedure is continued until a converged value of T1 is ob-
tained. Using the compressor, collector and thermal modules,
monthly averaged instantaneous values of compressor work, solar
energy absorbed and auxiliary energy are calculated. The values of
these parameters are integrated over a given month, and eventu-
ally over all months to yield the annual values. The thermal energy
delivered by the heat pump Q_ H , and the solar energy absorbed by
the refrigerant, Q_ solar are calculated from the following equations

Q_ H ¼ m
_ coll ðh2  h3 Þ ð4Þ

Q_ solar ¼ m
_ coll ðh1  h4 Þ ð5Þ

The coefficient of performance of the heat pump (COPH) and the

collector efficiency are calculated from Eqs. (6)–(8) listed below.
QH
COPH ¼ ð6Þ
_ comp
W Fig. 3. Flow chart of thermal analysis computational algorithm.

where
6. Economic analysis
VD
_ coll ¼
m ð7Þ
v1 In the present study, economic analysis is performed using the
life cycle cost (LCC) method. The life cycle cost is the sum of all costs
Q_ solar associated with the SAHP system over its’ entire lifetime, in present
gcoll ¼ ð8Þ
Icoll Ac cost, that takes into account the time value of money. Several fac-
tors such as initial cost, operating cost, and maintenance cost need
Since the system requires auxiliary energy due to intermittency to be taken into account. The method for calculating LCC is well
of available solar energy, the effective coefficient of performance is established and readers are referred to Ref. [44]. Taking into ac-
determined as count the utility inflation rate, and the monetary inflation rate
and the present worth (PW) factors, the LCC can be expressed as
Q_ load
COPeffectiv e ¼ ð9Þ LCC ¼ PWSystem þ PWInstillation þ PWmaintenance þ PWEnergy usage
_
ðW comp þ W _ Aux Þ
 PWtax ð11Þ
where W _ Aux is the auxiliary energy required to meet the load in the
absence of solar radiation.
From the integrated monthly energy fluxes, one can calculate Using LCC one can compare the economic sustainability of the
auxiliary energy ðQ_ Aux Þ and solar energy ðQ_ solar Þ as a fraction of proposed SAHP system with other alternatives such as the solar
thermal load ðQ_ load Þ electric water heater. The system cost and other related economic
parameters are shown in Table 3.
Q_ solar Q_ Aux
fsolar ¼ and f Aux ¼ ð10Þ
Q_ load Q_ load
7. Primary energy resource utilization

Table 2 provides the monthly thermal performance data of the For analysis of primary energy utilization in competing systems
system for all months of the year for the City of Norfolk, Virginia. for domestic hot water (DHW) applications, one can use the
554 S.K. Chaturvedi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 77 (2014) 550–557

Table 2
Monthly thermal performance of SAHP system for the City of Norfolk, Virginia.

Month QLoad (kJ) QH (kJ) Wc (kJ) QAux (kJ) COPH COPeffective PERoverall
January 1834249.00 980841.44 224066.16 853407.56 4.38 1.70 1.05
February 1656741.10 997399.10 207337.25 659342.00 4.81 1.91 1.14
March 1746604.40 1444560.50 284766.20 302043.88 5.07 2.98 1.41
April 1563606.90 1563606.90 278685.12 0.00 5.61 5.61 1.85
May 1462840.20 1462840.20 289305.78 0.00 5.06 5.06 1.67
June 1225478.40 1225478.40 280105.75 0.00 4.38 4.38 1.44
July 1201085.20 1201085.20 290158.25 0.00 4.14 4.14 1.37
August 1179075.90 1179075.90 289580.75 0.00 4.07 4.07 1.34
September 1119741.80 1119741.80 279336.97 0.00 4.01 4.01 1.32
October 1244711.10 1244711.10 233339.90 0.00 5.33 5.33 1.76
November 1542687.60 1123494.90 223628.38 419192.75 5.02 2.40 1.28
December 1702978.90 988435.75 224564.36 714543.10 4.40 1.81 1.08

primary energy ratio (PER), a parameter that characterizes the PERSAHP 1

overall efficiency of a number of interconnected energy transfor-
mation processes. For instance, in the DHW applications, in order
to determine the PER one must trace the energy flow all the way
back to the primary energy source (coal, natural gas, oil, etc.) to
determine how many kilo Joules of thermal energy are delivered
for end-use for every kJ of primary energy utilized. The ratio of
the delivered thermal energy and the primary energy is known
as the primary energy ratio (PER). Fig. 4 shows the energy flow
streams for two competing water heaters namely, an electric water
heater, and a solar-assisted heat pump with electric resistor as a
back-up system. In the case of an electric water heater, the effi-
ciency of the thermal power plant (nth) and the electrical transmis-
sion efficiency (ntrans) must be considered to account for losses in
those systems. As a result, the PER of the overall system, a combi-
nation of the power plant, transmission and electric water heater,
is nthntrans if the heat losses from the water tank are neglected. For
a coal fired power plant, with typical values of nth = 0.35 and
ntrans = 0.90 yields a PER value of 0.315. This represents an effective
yield of 31.5% with the remainder 68.5% of the primary energy
being lost as waste heat in the power plant and the utility trans-
mission lines. It should also be noted that even though electric
water heater are marketed as environmentally clean devices, in
reality there are emissions of global warming gases such as CO2
and other pollutants at the power plant that must be attributed
to electric heater for each kW h of electrical energy used in it.
For the solar- assisted heat pump system with and electric
resistance back-up system, the chart showing energy flow from
the primary energy source to the end-use (delivered) thermal en-
ergy is illustrated in Fig. 4. Using the first law of thermodynamics
for energy balances across each sub-system, one can show that the
PERSAHP, the primary energy ratio of the SAHP water heater system
can be expressed as follows.
Table 3
System input parameters for economic analysis.
Parameter Value
1 Life span-SAHP system 20 years
2 Initial system cost -SAHP system $3750
3 Installation cost -SAHP system $2000
4 Maintenance cost per year-SAHP system $40
5 Federal tax incentive-SAHP system (30% system cost) $1725
6 Life span-electric heater 20 years
7 Initial system cost – electric heater $500
8 Installation cost – electric heater $200
9 Maintenance cost per year-electric heater $20
10 Electricity cost per kW h $0.1
11 Utility inflation rate 10%
12 Monetary inflation rate 7%
¼h i ð12Þ
ðntrans nth Þ fAux þ ð1fAux Þ
COPH
In terms of fsolar (the fraction of load met by solar energy), the
above equation can be rewritten as,
PERSAHP 1
¼ ð13Þ
ðntrans nth Þ ð1  fsolar Þ
where
 
1
fsolar ¼ ð1  fAux Þ 1  ð14Þ
COPH
 
1
The term 1  COP H
can be regarded as the limiting value for
fsolar since any value of fsolar above it will result in a negative value
for fAux. This limiting value of fsolar increases with COPH. For in-
stance, for COPH = 5.0, the limiting value of fsolar is 0.8 and for
COPH = 3.0, it is 0.67.
Since the PER of the electric hot water equals ntransnth, PERSAHP
can be expressed as
PERSAHP 1
¼ ð15Þ
PERelec 1  fsolar
The primary energy ratio (PER) is defined as the ratio of the
thermal energy delivered to the primary energy consumed. The
variation of PERSAHP/PERelec as a function of fsolar is shown in
Fig. 5. It is noted that as fsolar approaches 0.0, fAux equals 1.0 and
the SAHP system is 100% reliant on the auxiliary electric heat,
and the PERSAHP is accordingly equal to PERelec. At the other ex-
treme, as fsolar approaches 1, the SAHP system operates in the solar
only system mode, and the ratio approaches infinity asymptoti-
cally. The latter limit is not technically feasible as it would require
COPH to approach infinity. This is also not economically feasible as
it would require a very large solar collector field to achieve 100%
solar only limit. In practical systems, fsolar is generally limited to
a value in the range of 0.50–0.70. Since PERSAHP/PERelec is always
greater than 1.0, from the perspective of efficient primary resource
utilization, the SAHP water heater is always a better alternative
than the electric water heater. However, from an economic view-
point, this may not always be the case because of the tradeoffs be-
tween higher capital cost (for the SAHP system) and higher
operating cost (for the electric water heater).
8. Discussion of results-annualized system performance
In this section, the effects of changes in the collector area, com-
pressor displacement volume (VD) and the load temperature on
 S.K. Chaturvedi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 77 (2014) 550–557 555

Fig. 4. Energy flow diagram for the SAHP system.

40 displacement of the compressor is 0.0003518 m3/s. From Fig. 6,

one observes that a minimum value of LCC occurs at a collector
35 area of 3 m2. Further increase in collector area beyond the mini-
mum point yields a higher LCC. This is the optimal configuration
30 from the long-term economic perspective due to two counteract-
ing effects, namely the capital cost and the operating cost of the
PER solar /PER elec.

25 system. The capital cost of the system for a fixed load temperature
and compressor displacement volume increases with increasing
20 collector area while the system operational cost decreases. In-
creased solar energy collection raises the collector/evaporator tem-
15 perature, leading to a lower temperature lift in the heat pumping
process. This translates into reduced compressor power input,
10 and consequently lower operational cost. The variation of the
LCC with the compressor displacement volume is shown in
5
Fig. 7. For a fixed 3 m2 solar collector area, it can be seen that a
minimum value of LCC is obtained at VD = 0.0003518 m3/s. The
reason for this occurrence has to do with two opposing trends
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 involving the variation of compressor power ðW _ comp Þ, and the aux-
iliary electrical powerðW_ Aux Þ, as the compressor volume is changed.
fSolar
Since the capital cost is fixed for a given collector area, the varia-
Fig. 5. Variation of PERSAHP/PERelec as a function of fsolar. tion in LCC is solely due to changes in W _ Aux and W _ comp . As higher
values of compressor displacement are chosen the refrigerant mass
flow rate through the system also increases. This results in greater
the long-term system performance are discussed. Fig. 6 shows the heat pump capacity ðQ_ H Þ and higher W _ comp . Since W _ Aux is the differ-
variation of the system life cycle cost (LCC) with the collector area ence between the fixed load the heat pump capacity ðQ_ H Þ, the net
for a specified load temperature and compressor displacement _ Aux . These two effects transpire to yield an
result is a decrease in W
volume. The presented load temperature is 60 °C and the volume optimal value of VD as shown in Fig. 7.
556 S.K. Chaturvedi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 77 (2014) 550–557

14000 14000

12000 12000

10000 10000

LCC ($)
8000 8000
LCC ($)

6000 6000 o
Tc=50 C
o
Tc=55 C
4000 4000 o
Tc=60 C
o
Tc=65 C
2000 2000 Tc=70
o
C

0 0
0 2 4 6 2 3 4 5 6

Collector area (m ) 2 Collector area (m2 )

Fig. 6. Variation of life cycle cost with collector area (VD = 35.18  105 m3/s, load Fig. 8. Variation of life cycle cost (LCC) with collector area and load temperature.
temperature = 60 °C).

3
14000
Ac=3
Ac=4
12000
Ac=5
Electical heater
10000
2
Annual PER
LCC ($)

8000

6000

4000
1

2000

0
0 0.0002 0.0004 0.0006 0.0008 0.001

VD (m 3/s) 0
40 50 60 70 80
Fig. 7. Variation of life cycle cost (LCC) with compressor displacement (VD) Load temerature (oC)
(Ac = 3.0 m2/s, load temperature = 60 °C).
Fig. 9. Variation of overall annual per with collector area and load temperature.

The variation of LCC as a function of the collector area and the

load temperature is shown in Fig. 8. For comparison the LCC of
the electric water heater is also displayed. One notes that as the
load temperature increases the LCC increases for a given collector
area (fixed capital cost) because the operating costs are higher
due to the higher temperature lift during the heat pumping pro-
cess. Also, for a given load temperature, the LCC value increases
with area since the capital cost is greater than the reduction in
the operating cost due to enhanced heat pump efficiency. Towards
the higher end of the load temperature range, as seen in Fig. 8, the
heat pump LCC becomes comparable to the LCC of the electric hot
water system. Unlike the electric hot water heater whose thermal
and economic performance is independent of the load tempera-
ture, the performance of the SAHP system depends strongly on
the load temperature.
Fig. 9 shows the variation of the annual PER of the SAHP system
as a function of the collector area and the load temperature. For
comparison, the PERelec of the electric hot water heater is also in-
cluded. For all collector areas and load temperatures the PERSAHP
values are higher than unity and also well above the PERelec value
of 0.33. This indicates that the SAHP system utilizes primary en-
ergy far more efficiently compared to the electric hot water heater
over the load temperature range considered in this study. The
PERSAHP value decreases with the increasing load temperature
and this implies that the SAHP system is utilizing a primary energy
less efficiently. For a fixed load temperature gain in PERSAHP are
achieved. This is due to elevated collector temperature that results
in a smaller temperature lift. The resultant reduced value of W_ comp
implies a decrement in the primary energy resource demand for a
given thermal load requirement. Fig. 9 also suggests that the SAHP
system is best suited from the efficient energy resource utilization
perspective, for water heating or preheating applications in the 50–
70 °C load temperature range. In this temperature range both the
LCC and PER values are decidedly superior to the electric only
system.
9. Conclusions
The present study employed modeling and long-term averaged
monthly solar data to simulate the long-term averaged thermal
performance of a direct-expansion solar assisted heat pump. Re-
sults were obtained for a range of load temperature and for a num-
ber of collector areas and compressor displacement volumes. The
thermo-economic analysis results of the SAHP system indicates
that the system is an appropriate match for the temperature water
heating applications. Since a large amount of primary energy is
consumed in the USA in meeting the demands for low temperature
 S.K. Chaturvedi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 77 (2014) 550–557
(50–70 °C) domestic water heating applications, the SAHP water
heaters are the ideal systems for such applications. These systems,
as the present study reveals are both economical as well as energy
conserving solutions compared to the electric-only hot water heat-
ers. Reduced consumption of electricity and the capture of renew-
able solar energy through collectors should have a favorable
environmental impact since reduced carbon emission would result
if these systems are used as an alternative to the electric-only sys-
tems. The simulation of the system also indicates that its long-term
economic performance (LCC) can be optimized with respect to the
collector area and the compressor displacement volume for a spec-
ified load temperature. At load temperatures higher than 70 °C, the
performance of the single stage heat pump considered in this study
degrades to the extent that its cost and efficiency advantages over
the electric only system are lost. In the higher load temperature
range (>70 °C) a two stage heat pump system may be more appro-
priate [45] and its long-term thermo economic cost-efficiency ben-
efit analysis should be considered in a future study.
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