Applied Thermal Engineering 141 (2018) 565–578

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Applied Thermal Engineering

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

Research Paper

Simulation study of a combined solar and heat pump system for heating and T
domestic hot water in a medium rise residential building at Concepción in
Chile
⁎
Javier Vega, Cristian Cuevas
Departamento de Ingeniería Civil Mecánica, Universidad de Concepción Edmundo Larenas 219, Concepción, Chile

H I GH L IG H T S

• Good performance figures of SHP systems validate its use for heating and DHW.
• Heat pumps combined with evacuated tube collectors give better performance figures.
• The system SPF for heating depends mainly on the heating demand.
• SHP system used for heating presents better performance figures than the DHW system.

A B S T R A C T

Combined solar and heat pump (SHP) systems have not yet been introduced massively in Chile. On the other
hand, large-scale residential buildings offer an interesting emplacement for applying these kinds of systems, but
the methodologies for predicting accurately its performance are not so obvious. Thus, this paper presents the
modelling of a SHP system designed for a five floor residential building, developed in TRNSYS 17. First, a
detailed model of a residential building is done to understand their thermal behaviour. In this analysis, it is
determined that the heat load of each building apartment depends strongly on its location. Notably, the first floor
is the most demanding one, reaching the highest load for an apartment: 7.52 (kW). The total heat load of the
buildings is 348.35 (kW) and the total space heating energy demand in winter season is 932,295 (kWh). On the
other hand, two parallel SHP systems with air-to-water heat pumps are simulated: one for the domestic hot water
demand; the other one for the heating demand. For evaluating the latter, a reduced simulation model is con-
sidered by coupling the system to 18 different air nodes, selected in function of their location in the building. The
results show that the SPF for a same system in different apartments depends primarily on its heating demand.
Thus, the individual components performance remains practically invariant. This allows to estimate the overall
performance of a centralized heating system for the whole building, whose predicted SPFheat is 4.64 using Flat
Plate Collectors (FPC) and 4.88 using Evacuated Tube Collectors (ETC). On the other hand, the performance
figure of the DHW system is lower, reaching SPFDHW of 3.93 and 4.27 using FPC and ETC respectively ETC in a
system that provides around 378,353 (kWh) useful energy a year.

1. Introduction
In central and southern Chile, residential heating systems are
mainly based on wood, paraffin or liquefied petroleum gas stoves.
Among these, wood is the most frequent fuel because of its lower price
and availability. Unfortunately, the combustion of wood is the main
source of air pollution during the winter period, with several cities
declared as saturated by airborne pollution. In the case of the domestic
hot water, it is mainly heated by the combustion of liquefied petroleum
gas or natural gas. Here, in addition to the pollutions concerns, which is
less severe than with wood, there is another constraint related to the
cost of the fuels, which are too high and very sensitive to the energy
crisis. All these, motivate this study in order to evaluate the perfor-
mance of alternative, more efficient and less contaminant technologies,
like heat pumps, by combining them with solar energy, which is known
as Solar Heat Pump Systems.
Combined solar and heat pump technologies (SHP systems) have
been widely studied in the literature. One way to categorize them is

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: javvega@udec.cl (J. Vega), crcuevas@udec.cl (C. Cuevas).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2018.06.011
Received 2 January 2018; Received in revised form 15 May 2018; Accepted 3 June 2018
Available online 05 June 2018
1359-4311/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
J. Vega, C. Cuevas Applied Thermal Engineering 141 (2018) 565–578

Nomenclature ex exhaust
el electric
A area, m2 ETC evacuated tube collector
a1 first order efficiency coefficient fan fan
a2 second order efficiency coefficient FPC flat plate collector
b0 first order IAM coefficient global global
COP coefficient of performance heat heating
F factor HP, hp heat pump
I solar radiation, W·m−2 mix mixing
IAM incidence angle modifier network network
Ṁ mass flow rate, kg·s−1 pp pump
Q̇ heat flow, W set settled or set-point
Q thermal energy, J sol solar
R thermal resistance, h·m2·K·J−1 su supply
SCOP seasonal coefficient of performance syst system
SPF seasonal performance factor tank storage tank
T temperature, °C top top
V volume, m3 tot total
Ẇ power, W u useful
W electric energy, J w water

Subscripts Greek symbols

a air Δ difference
amb ambient η efficiency
aux auxiliar η0 intercept efficiency
ave average θ incidence angle
cd condenser τ time, s
col collector
DHW domestic hot water

according to the interaction of their components, which was fully de-
scribed by Ruschenburg et al. [1]. Thus, three main configurations are
defined: parallel, series and regenerative. The energy performance of
the SHP systems depends on several variables such as the building
characteristics, the heat pump components, the solar radiation, the
ambient conditions, the energy demand schedules, among others. This
performance is rarely evaluated experimentally due to the complexity
of the systems and to the costs associated to the instrumentation and to
the measurement campaign. Thus, most of the performance analysis are
developed using modelling and simulations during a representative
period of time. For the modelling, different kinds of approaches are
proposed in the literature. Semi-empirical black box models are the
most popular approaches used to model conventional systems by giving
sufficiently accurate results. In this kind of approach, every component
is described via catalogue data and by using semi-empirical approaches.
These models are executed in programs like TRNSYS, Energy-Plus, ESP-
r, Insel or Matlab, among others [2].
The use of simulation techniques has been widely used in the last
years to simulate SHP systems. Some of these researches are summar-
ized hereafter. Emmi et al. [4] developed an analysis of a regenerative
system used for heating in a residential building coupled to a ground
source heat pump for six different climates by using the software
TRNSYS. The authors considered a time period of 10 years, with and
without solar collectors. According to their results, when the system
used solar collectors the SCOP did not decrease over the time, due to
the recharging effect caused by the solar energy. Reda et al. [5] de-
veloped a similar study to the previous one by considering 3 European
cities. According to the authors, ground coupled heat pumps allowed to
store energy from solar collectors and to carry out free cooling. In the
case of air-source heat pumps, Poppi et al. [6] developed a theoretical
analysis by using TRNSYS for two different climates. The conclusions
were mainly focussed on the economical analysis. Tzivanidis et al. [7]
developed a parametric analysis in TRNSYS for three different heating
systems: a solar system, an air-source heat pump and a solar source heat
pump. Lerch et al. [8] compared several SHP systems for heating and
DHW; studying different kinds of series configurations, including ice
storages, air preheating by solar energy and refrigerant heating by solar
energy after the heat pump evaporator. Compared to a classical parallel
configuration, the results showed a little system performance increase.
In addition, using unglazed collectors as source for the heat pumps, the
system required to double the collector’s aperture area to achieve a
similar system performance. Haller et al. [9] described the potential of
these configurations. Jonas et al. [10] developed a simulation study in
TRNSYS of a combined parallel solar thermal and ground or air source
heat pump in order to evaluate the effect of the climate (Strasbourg and
Helsinki) and 3 building typologies on the SHP system performance.
They analysed the effect of the solar collector area on the seasonal
performance factor (SPF), for example, for a collector area of 10 m2 and
a building typology SFH45 the SPF of a ground source heat pump and
an air source heat pump installed in Strasbourg were 5.05 and 4.17
respectively, and for Helsinki 5.07 and 3.25 respectively.
The studies cited previously were focussed to different SHP con-
figurations coupled to single-family buildings. Nonetheless, it is diffi-
cult to find in the literature detailed studies about SHP systems coupled
to multi-family buildings, as the proposed in this study. In the state of
art, two articles were found, which are cited hereafter. Fraga et al. [11]
developed a detailed 2 year monitoring of a SHP system for space
heating and DHW in a multi-family building in Geneva with high
thermal envelope standards. They concluded that for Geneva’s weather,
3 m2 of solar collector per kW of heat pump capacity is a good com-
promise between system size and system performance. In newly con-
structed, high efficient buildings, the system could reach a SPFsys of 5.
On the other hand, the space heating demand profile was simplified to a
linear function for the building as a whole. This heat demand simpli-
fication led to a slight discrepancy between the simulation and the
monitored data because this hypothesis did not take into account the

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J. Vega, C. Cuevas
system dynamics. On their side, Gustafsson et al. [12] developed a
techno-economic analysis of energy renovation measures for a district
heated multi-family house, evaluated through dynamic simulations in
TRNSYS 17. Different solution packages including many insulation
strategies, flow-reducing water taps and better insulated windows were
analysed by combining them with different HVAC systems for heat
recovery of exhaust air. The authors presented interesting economical
and environmental figures, stating that primary energy consumption
was reduced by up to 58%, CO2 emissions up to 65% and non-renew-
able energy consumption up to 56%. In the modelling several simpli-
fications were developed, such as grouping several apartments in one
zone, the living zones that were not modelled were assumed to have the
same heat load that the modelled ones, the radiators were modelled by
using Excel models, among others.
Then, there are some innovative studies to use SHP systems with a
dual tank solar-assisted heat pump, as proposed by Banister and Collins
[13], which allowed to reduce the energy consumption from 60% to
69% when this system was used with a solar collector area of 7.5 m2
according to the TRNSYS simulation; the study developed by He et al.
[14] about a solar façade-assisted heat pump, which was modelled and
characterized experimentally by giving a good performance with
average COPs of the order of 4.9; and more recently the study of
Youssef et al. [15] who analysed experimentally the effect of latent heat
storage on the performance of a solar assisted heat pump for DHW.
According to the authors, the average system COP could increase
6.1–14.0% for sunny and cloudy days respectively by using a latent heat
storage system.
According to the literature reviewing, the analysis of SHP systems
through simulation software is very frequent. Thus, in the present study
it is used the same methodology to analyse this kind of technologies.
The system proposed here consists in a parallel SHP system coupled to a
typical medium rise multi-family building located in Concepción,
southern Chile. The aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of
the system for a typical year by considering the effect of the building
characteristics, meteorological data, equipment characteristics and en-
ergy demand (heating and DHW) characteristics. The simulation is
developed with the software TRNSYS 17 [3]. One of the strengths of
this paper is the extensive space heating considered to evaluate an
identical heating systems in different apartments of the building that
have been modelled through the TRNBUILD tool to analyse in detail the
response of the heating system accordingly to the thermal zones char-
acteristics and spatial location. Some features that have been simplified
by other authors are considered here, as the thermal capacity of the
apartments or different system control responses by the thermostats. On
the other hand, the other main contribution of this paper are the per-
formance indicators presented in this study, which depend mainly on
the particular Chilean building characteristics and weather conditions.
Moreover, in Chile this kind of technology do not have still been stu-
died, thus it is the first study developed to evaluate and to promote the
Fig. 1. Location of the building: latitude 36°50′13.93″S; longitude 73° 6′16.50″O.
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Applied Thermal Engineering 141 (2018) 565–578
use of this kind of technology.
2. Heating, domestic hot water and pollution in Chile
As mentioned previously, the fuels used for heating in Chile are
wood, paraffin, liquefied petroleum gas and natural gas, and for do-
mestic hot water liquefied petroleum gas and natural gas. To under-
stand better the use of energy in Chile, the last national energy balance
developed by the Chilean Ministry of Energy [16] in 2015 is analysed.
According to this balance, the secondary energy consumption of the
residential sector is a 15% of the national energy consumption, from
this 43% is biomass, 25% electricity, 17% liquefied petroleum gas, 12%
natural gas and 3% paraffin. These indicators can be complemented
with the results presented by CDT [17] in 2010. During that year, wood
represented 46.64% of the residential energy demand, being 97.4% of
this percentage used for heating and the rest mainly used for cooking.
Natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas represented a 31.48%, being
19.9% used for heating and 54.4% for domestic hot water. Electricity
represented 17.65% of the residential energy demand, being 2.3% used
for heating and 1.6% for domestic hot water. Paraffin represented
3.33% of the residential energy demand, being mainly used for heating.
On the other hand, according to the Ministry of Environment [18],
the combustion of wood is the main responsible of emissions of parti-
culate matter 2.5 (PM 2.5), representing around 95% of these emis-
sions. By taking the values measured by some environment measure-
ment stations in 43 cities along the country, 29 cities shown an annual
MP 2.5 concentration higher than the allowed according to the actual
Chilean normative (maximum annual value of 20 μg·m−3) and by
taking a daily concentration this number increases up to 33 cities (the
actual normative fixes a maximum daily value at 50 μg·m−3). All the
cities that have a MP 2.5 concentration higher than the allowed by the
Chilean normative are located in the central and southern Chile, which
are the zones where heating is mainly required during the winter
season.
All these information show that the use of wood for heating is the
main responsible of pollution in central and southern Chile, and this
pollution will increase in the following years because the use of wood is
also increasing year after year [18]. Due to the high levels of pollution,
from 2017 the Chilean Ministry of Environment decides to forbid the
use of wood in several Chilean cities during the winter season.
3. Methodology
To develop this study a typical apartment building located in
Concepción southern Chile is taken, which is characterized in terms of
heating and domestic hot water demand. Then, a heating system is
designed and sized for both demands and simulated during a year to
evaluate the performance of the solar heat pump system.
J. Vega, C. Cuevas Applied Thermal Engineering 141 (2018) 565–578

3.1. Characteristics of the building Table 1

Characteristics of the external walls and windows.
This study is developed in a residential building composed of 2 Layer/ Thickness Global heat transfer
paired buildings of 5 stages and 1 underground, with a total of 78 characteristics [cm] coefficient
apartments, 13.2 m total high and located in Concepción, southern [W·m−2·K−1]
Chile. This location corresponds to the zone 4 according to the Chilean
Vertical external Plasterboard 1 1.248
thermal zone classification, whose characteristics correspond to a walls Expanded 2
Mediterranean climate with an oceanic influence due to the Pacific Polystyrene
Ocean, equivalent to the Csb Köppen climate classification. It is a re- Concrete 15
latively new building, built in 2015. Figs. 1 and 2 show some details, Roof Concrete 50 2.234
Windows Single 0.40 5.8
like the building location according to Google Earth and a plant view of
the different types of apartments. The building is oriented almost per-
fectly north–south, with a slight difference of 5° to the north-west. Table 2
The building external walls are built with concrete and an internal Heat transfer areas according to the orientation [m2].
insulation layer of expanded polystyrene. The windows used in the
North East West South Horizontal
external envelope are single glass with an aluminium frame. The main
characteristics of the external walls and windows are given in Table 1, Stage 1 Walls 23.8 310.57 289.8 23.8 1161.2
including the global heat transfer coefficient. Windows 8.6 95.37 109.9 3.78 –
By integrating the wall and window areas, it was able to determine Stage 2 Walls 23.8 310.57 289.8 23.8 –
the external heat transfer areas for every building stage. The results are Windows 8.6 97.4 108.91 3.78 –
Stage 3 Walls 23.8 310.57 289.8 23.8 –
summarized in Table 2. Windows 8.6 104.4 111.01 3.78 –
According to these results, the building has a ratio between win- Stage 4 Walls 23.8 310.57 289.8 23.8 –
dows to the total external vertical wall area of 0.34. By considering the Windows 8.6 104.4 111.01 3.78 –
current Chilean building norms, this value exceeds the 0.21 maximum Stage 5 Walls 23.8 310.57 289.8 23.8 1161.2
Windows 8.6 102.43 111.01 3.78 –
allowed ratio for the thermal zone 4.
As explained previously, the thermal behaviour of the apartments is
simulated and their heating loads are determined by using the software
3.2. Sizing of the equipments used in the simulation
TRNSYS and using the meteorological data for a Typical Meteorological
Year given by Meteonorm [19]. It is found that the total heating load of
Two SHP systems are defined and analyzed in the numerical simu-
the two paired buildings is 348.35 kW. Thus, the maximum heating
lations: one for the DHW and other one for the heating demand. The
demand per dwelling is 7.52 kW. It is also verified, by a stationary
DHW system is sized by considering that the solar collectors can supply
energy balance model developed in EES [20] and compared with a
around 60% of the annual energy demand. In this process, the f-chart
stationary model developed by the Chilean government for the energy
method is used. Then, through an iterative process the capacities of the
labelling of buildings, that the specific heating load of every dwelling in
heat pumps and auxiliary heaters are determined, in order to satisfy the
the building is lower than the maximum allowed by the Chilean energy
temperature set point of 48 °C during a year. Several simulations are
building norms. Thus, the highest specific load determined with the
developed for this sizing, starting from a system with 230 m2 of solar
stationary model in the simulation with EES [20] is 111 W·m−2. On the
collector aperture area but with null heat pump and auxiliary capacity.
other hand, according to the model of the Chilean normative, the
The heat pump capacity and then the auxiliary heaters capacity are
building is labelled in the category E.
increased until the demand requirements are fulfilled during the whole
On the other hand, the DHW profile demand used in this analysis is
year. Table 3 summarizes the results obtained from this iterative sizing
the one recommended by the ASHRAE Standard 90.2 [21], while the
procedure.
total daily water consumption is estimated in 25,270 litters according
The heat pump performance characteristics considered in the
to ASPE [22]. The DHW consumption temperature is defined as 48 °C,
modelling are taken from a heat pump manufacturer and are shown in
which is obtained by mixing the hot water coming from the storage
Fig. 3. The performance characteristics of the solar collectors are shown
tank with cold water supplied from the network.
further in Fig. 6.
On the other hand, for the heating system a unique system is sized. As
mentioned previously, the maximum heating demand of an apartment

Fig. 2. Schematic of the building orientation, detailing the apartment’s classification.

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J. Vega, C. Cuevas
Table 3
Equipment sizing for the DHW SHP system.
Number of solar collectors 115
Total aperture area [m2] 230
Heat pumps total capacity [kW] 48
Water storage volume [m3] 22.7
Note: Heat pump capacity for Ta = 7 °C and Tw = 30 °C.
Fig. 3. Performance characteristics of the DHW heat pump for different exhaust
water temperatures Tw,ex,hp and different ambient temperatures Ta,su,hp.
is 7.52 kW, thus the heat pump selected is based on this power, which in
nominal conditions has a heating power of 9 kW. The number of solar
collectors is determined by considering the available area on the
building roof, which is of the order of 8 m2 per apartment in this case,
by subtracting the area of the solar collectors for the DHW system. The
heat transfer to the thermal zone is developed via an underfloor heating
system, sized for supplying a heating demand based on the highest
specific load; thus, the system is oversized for several dwellings. This
unit determines the operating temperatures and the capacity of the heat
pump. In the case of the solar system, four solar collectors are assigned
for each apartment, in such a way that the total panel array used for
heating and DHW can theoretically fit on the buildings roofs, by oc-
cupying 84.4% of the total area available on the roof. Then, in order to
study its performance, the system is independently coupled to 18 dif-
ferent apartments. This methodology is detailed in the following sec-
tions. Table 4 summarize the size of the equipments used for heating
purposes.
The heat pump performance characteristics are taken from a heat
pump manufacturer and are shown in Fig. 4.
3.3. Modelling
For the system modelling, several modules available in TRNSYS and
from Thermal Energy System Specialists [23–27] have been used. The
most important components used in the model are listed in Table 5.
3.3.1. Building
The building is modelled through the Type 56 multizone building
model available in TRNSYS. Every dwelling, corridor and the under-
ground are considered as a different air node, which gives as a result a
total of 89 thermal zones. The building heating load is determined by
considering a time step of one hour.
On the other hand, three other models of the buildings are devel-
oped. In each of these models a different stage is studied in detail (one
for the first, the third and the fifth floor respectively), while the rest of
the building is simplified. The reason to couple the SHP model to this
simplified Type 56 model is to overcome numerical convergence
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Applied Thermal Engineering 141 (2018) 565–578
problems, as well as to reduce the calculation time. It is, of course,
verified that the results are similar enough to the detailed model. An
example of this is shown in Fig. 5, while the deviations are listed in
Table 6. These results are obtained via the Type 56 ideal heating with a
22 (°C) set point temperature.
3.3.2. Equipments
Two types of solar collectors are used: flat plate (FPC) and evac-
uated tube collectors (ETC). The FPCs are selected because these are
widely used in solar thermal systems, while the ETCs are of interest
because of its presumably better performance in Concepción’s climate.
Both FPCs and ETCs are modelled through their quadratic efficiency
curves, whose differences can be appreciated in Fig. 6.
On the other hand, Incidence Angle Modifiers (IAM) are considered
for both kind of solar collectors. The flat plate collector is modelled
through a single incidence angle, according to Eq. (1). In the case of the
evacuated tube collectors, the incidence angle modifiers are modelled
calling an external file containing the corresponding values for each
couple of incidence angles.
1
IAM = 1−b0 ∙ ⎛ −1⎞
⎝ cosθ ⎠ (1)
In order to operate the collectors with a good performance, their
models are attached to variable speed pumps. Thus, their operational
flow rates are modulated within the recommended catalogue range in
such a way that their outlet temperature is as close as possible to 60 °C
in order to minimize the ambient losses of the solar system.
Heat pumps are modelled through a performance model map. This
black-box model determines the heat pump effective capacity and its
energy consumption by using as inputs the air source and the water sink
temperatures. To develop this model, it is used the information of the
manufacturer catalogue, which gives the heat pump performance for air
temperatures ranging from −15 to 25 °C and for inlet sink water tem-
peratures ranging from 25 to 50 °C. The heat pumps are modelled by
using the type 941 model, which does not consider the effect of water
moisture condensation on the evaporator surface. It uses a performance
map approach that is determined by using the manufacturer perfor-
mance characteristics similar to the presented in Figs. 3 and 4, but by
considering the heat pump heating power and the compressor power,
both as function of the entering water temperature and the entering
evaporator air temperature. To determine the actual performance of the
heat pump, the model interpolates between the values given by the
manufacturer. The model does not interpolate beyond the values given
by the manufacturer. When the working conditions in water tempera-
ture and/or air temperature are outside the range of the catalogue data,
the minimum or maximum value is returned by the model. Other
parameters of the model are the airflow rate, the fan power and the
auxiliary heating power. The heat pump water flow rate is considered
as an input of the model.
Finally, in this model the heat pump COP is determined as:
̇ + Qaux
Qcd ̇
COP =
̇ + Ẇ fan + Waux
Wcp ̇ (2)
The water storage tanks for heating and DHW are modelled as
vertical, fluid filled cylindrical tanks and with two internal coiled tubes
heat exchangers. The stratification is modelled through 10 vertically
Table 4
Equipment sizing for the heating SHP system and per dwelling.
Number of solar collectors per dwelling 4
Total aperture area [m2] 8
Heat pumps capacity [kW] 9
Water storage volume [m3] 0.3
Design capacity of the radiant slab [W·m−2] 111
Note: Heat pump capacity for Ta = 7 °C and Tw = 30 °C.
J. Vega, C. Cuevas Applied Thermal Engineering 141 (2018) 565–578

Fig. 4. Performance characteristics of the heating heat pump for different ex-
haust water temperatures Tw,ex,hp and different ambient temperatures Ta,su,hp.
arranged isothermal water nodes of equal volume. The inversion mix
flow rate is done in such a way that if a node is hotter than the one
located above it, then an instantaneous adiabatic mix is done between
both at the end of the simulation time step. In the case of the DHW
storage tank, two electric heaters are considered, one located in the
second and the other one in the sixth node from the top to the bottom.
Thus, every node can interact thermally with the environment, the
immersed coiled tubes heat exchangers, the neighbour nodes, the en-
ergy inputs from auxiliary equipment and the flow streams in the tank.
Also, the ambient losses in every node are determined by considering a
constant overall heat transfer coefficient.
The radiant slab is modelled through the Type 653 model, which
simplifies the slab as an isothermal volume and the heat transfer from
the piping is modelled with an effectiveness approach. The module has
been coupled to the Type 56 model by considering it as an external gain
of the building, where the total heat loss on the top of the slab is divided
in a 40% convective heat gain and a 60% radiative heat gain. Some
parameters set on the slab model are invariant in the heating system
simulations; in contrary, others are modified so they accomplish a
constant requirement. These are the total slab area in the dwelling and
the total pipe length, which is considered equal to 10 m·per m2 of floor
space.
3.3.3. Overall system
As mentioned previously, the system considered in this study cor-
responds to a parallel configuration. According to the results presented
by Haller and Frank [9] this kind of configuration gives better perfor-
mances at higher solar radiation and higher ambient temperatures,
which is the case of the city analyzed in this study.
The SHP system configuration used for DHW is shown in Fig. 7. It is
an open circuit receiving water from the network and sending water to
the consumption.
Some important data describing the system design are shown in
Table 7. Two electric resistances are considered as auxiliary heating
system, one located in node 2 and other one located at node 6, both are
activated at the temperatures indicated in Fig. 7.
The SHP heating configuration is presented in Fig. 8. In this case,
the heat pump’s hydronics are directly connected to the storage tank,
instead of using a coiled heat exchanger. This is done to prevent un-
necessary high temperatures in the heat pump’s circuit and to improve
its efficiency.
Some data concerning the SHP heating system are shown in Tables 8
and 9.
In both systems, the control logic is set in such a way that the heat
pumps operate only when the solar collectors cannot satisfy the system
requirements. On their side, the solar collectors operate every time that
the temperatures and the solar radiation conditions allow them to
contribute energy to the water storage tank. It is also important to
specify that besides the heating schedule described in Table 9, the
system components only works during the heating season defined be-
tween April 1st and October 31st.
4. Results and analysis
4.1. Heating demand with an ideal heating system
It is first developed a building simulation to determine the heating
loads used to size the equipments of the SHP system by considering 1-
hour time step. Here, there are some interesting results of the thermal
behaviour of the buildings. The temperatures without heating of some
dwellings are shown in Fig. 9 for summer and winter.
Fig. 9 is interesting because it evidences that internal temperatures
can be very different in identical apartments. Notably, without heating
the first floor is the coldest one, thus the one with the highest heating
load per type of apartment. In fact, this is corroborated in a second
simulation by activating the ideal type 56 heating system with 22 (°C)
setpoint temperature. In this case, comparing every apartment of the
buildings, the difference in the heating loads of every apartment of the
buildings can be dramatically different: the detailed Type 56 model
shows that the most demanding dwelling requires around 4 times more
power than the lesser one. Fig. 10 shows the total heating demand of
the buildings through the heating season of the year, defined from April
1st to October 31st. On the other hand, the total energy requirement of
the building for space heating in this heating season sums 932,295
(kWh).
4.2. Results for the SHP systems
In a third simulation, to evaluate the performance of the SHP sys-
tems, it is considered a time step of 5 min. The time step considered in

Table 5
Models used in TRNSYS for the SHP systems simulation.
Type number Description Documentation Description/parameters

56 Building model [23] Standard Type, multi-zone model.

538 Evacuated Tube Collector Model
539 Flat Plate Collector Model
941 Air-to-Water Heat Pump
534 Cylindrical Storage Tank with
Immersed Heat Exchangers
653 Radiant Slab Model
[24] Quadratic efficiency curve model. Parameters: η0 = 0.642; a1 = 0.885; a2 = 0.001. Bi-angular IAM’s
extracted from TESS library
[24] Quadratic efficiency curve model. Parameters: η0=0.804; a1 = 3.235; a2 = 0.0117. IAM50 = 0.94;
b0 = 0.108
[25] This model is based on an user-supplied data file containing catalogue data for the capacity and power
consumption for various operating temperatures
[26] Constant volume, fluid filled tank model for the DHW system. The stratification is modelled through
isothermal nodes. 10 vertical nodes; internal heat exchangers type: coiled tubes. Heat loss coefficient on
every surface of 3 [kJ·h−1·m−2·K−1]
[27] Simplified Radiant Slab Model with effectiveness approach. Thickness of slab = 0.1016 [m]; Slab
density = 2000 [kg·m−3]; Rtop = 0.01 [h·m2·K·kJ−1]; Number of circuits = 1

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Fig. 5. Heating demand of a dwelling with a detailed and simplified model.

Table 6 ∫ Qu̇ , col·dτ

Maximum standard deviation in a dwelling for each stage.
Heat demand First stage
Standard deviation in dwelling [kW] 0.120
this case is lower because some components in the system have faster
interactions between them than the building’s thermal zones. Also, this
allows to have a more precise response of the thermostats used as
control signals, as for example in the storage tanks. In the reviewed
literature, the simulations are done within 2–15 min time step (Haller
et al. [9] and Lazzarin [28]). The system performance is then evaluated
through the following indicators:
∫ Qu̇ ·dτ
SPFsyst =
∫ (Wel̇ , tot, pp + Wel̇ , tot, HP + Wel̇ , tot, aux )·dτ
ηave, col =
∫ I ·Acol ·dτ (6)
Second stage Third stage
Qu̇ corresponds to the useful thermal power, which in the case of the
0.119 0.120 DHW system is the heating power supplied to the consumed water,
while that in the heating system is the heat flow transferred to the
heated zone through the heating floor; Wel̇ , tot , pp is the circulating pump
power; Wel̇ , tot , aux is the auxiliary heating power of the DHW system;
I ·Acol is the total solar radiation on the collector surfaces.
Between these performance indexes, the most important is the
SPFsyst . The objective of the others is to evaluate the behaviour of the
different components. It is important to notice that in this definition of
solar fraction only the solar quota of the storage losses is substracted
from the direct solar heat and then related to the useful heat. On the
other hand, the energy flows integration is done during the whole year
for the DHW system, meanwhile the space heating system considers
(3) only the heating period from April 1st to October 31st.

∫ Qu̇ , HP ·dτ 4.2.1. DHW results and analysis

SPFHP = The annual performance figures obtained for the DHW SHP system
∫ Wel̇ , tot, HP ·dτ (4) are presented in Table 10.
It is important to notice that the SPFsyst,DHW in Table 10, is presented
∫ Qu̇ , col·dτ without/with considering the hydraulic pumps power consumption. In
Fsol = this case, the annual electric consumption of the heat pump is 43,984
∫ (Qu̇ , col + Qu̇ , HP + Wel̇ , tot, aux )·dτ (5)
kWh for the system using FPC and 38,405 kWh for the system using

Fig. 6. Solar collector efficiencies.

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Fig. 7. Simplified scheme of the hydronics and control logic of the DHW system modelled in TRNSYS.

Table 7 Table 8
Parameters set on the DHW SHP system design. Parameters set on the heating SHP system design.
Set point temperature on top of the tank [°C] 50 Set point temperature on top of the tank [°C] 35
Temperature dead band (Tset-T) for turning on/off the heat pump 0/−5 Temperature dead band (Tset-T) for turning on/off the heat pump 0/−3
circuit [°C] circuit [°C]
Hydraulic Pump driven flowrate in the heat pump’s circuit 8268 Hydraulic Pump driven Flowrate in the heat pump’s circuit [L·h−1] 1600
[L·h−1] Set point temperature on collector’s outlet [°C] 45
Set point temperature on collector’s outlet [°C] 60 Flowrate range driven by the variable speed pump in the solar 180–360
Flowrate range driven by the variable speed pump of the 5175–10,350 collector’s circuit [L·h−1]
collector’s circuit [L·h−1]
Consumption DHW temperature [°C] 48
Set point temperature on top of the tank [°C] 50
Table 9
Temperature dead band (Tset-T) for turning on/off the heat pump 0/−5
Parameters set on the floor heating system design.
circuit [°C]
Hydraulic Pump driven flowrate in the heat pump’s circuit 8268 Set point temperature on the airnode thermostat [°C] 22.0
[L·h−1] Temperature dead band (Tset-T) of the thermostat [°C] 0.5/−0.5
Set point temperature on collector’s outlet [°C] 60 Heating Schedule 05:00 AM–10:00 PM
Flowrate range driven by the variable speed pump of the 5175–10,350 Hydraulic Pump driven Flowrate [L·h−1] 3500
collector’s circuit [L·h−1]
Consumption DHW temperature [°C] 48

Fig. 8. Simplified scheme of the hydronics and control logic of the SHP heating system modelled in TRNSYS.

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Fig. 9. Temperatures without heating of five equal apartments in different stages (a) in summer and (b) in winter.

ETC. By considering the auxiliary and pumps electric consumptions, the
total electric consumption increases up to 96,140 kWh for the system
using FPC and up to 88,607 kWh for the system using ETC.
The system presents very positive performance figures, presenting a
SPFsyst,DHW of 3.93 with FPC and 4.27 with ETC. For both cases, more
than half of the energy required for the DHW is supplied by the solar
collectors. For instance, it is of interest to analyze the monthly perfor-
mance indexes presented in Fig. 11, where are indicated the monthly
SPF of the system and the monthly performance of the heat pump only.
Here, it is observed that the SPFsyst,DHW changes drastically through the

Fig. 10. Total heating demand of the buildings and hourly ambient temperature through heating season of the year. Set point temperature: 22 (°C).

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Table 10
Energetic annual integration and performance figures obtained in the SHP system for DHW preparation.
SPFsyst,DHW SPFHP,DHW Fsol,DHW ηave,col,DHW QDHW Qu,col Qu,HP,DHW Wel,tot,aux,DHW
[–] [–] [%] [%] [kWh] [kWh] [kWh] [kWh]

FPC ETC FPC ETC FPC ETC FPC ETC FPC ETC FPC ETC FPC ETC FPC ETC

4.13/3.93 4.70/4.27 3.16 3.09 51.6 58.5 53.2 60.6 377,831 378,353 342,931 378,354 138,990 118,672 47,473 42,188

Fig. 11. Monthly system performances figures compared. (FPC: Flat Plate collectors, ETC: Evacuated Tube Collectors).

year, achieving very high values near summer due to the higher solar
contribution. In contrary, during the winter period the performance
figure of the system is nearly equal to the SPFHP,DHW of the heat pumps.
Here the effect of the solar collector technology is also included by
considering Flat Plate Collectors FPC and Evacuated Tube Collectors
ETC.
These results are consequence of the system’s control logic: the heat
pumps are programmed to operate only when the solar collector’s
contribution is not enough to satisfy the demand, which occurs parti-
cularly in winter. Thus, the system performance depends mainly on the
heat pumps SPFHP. Fig. 12 presents the monthly energy balance of the
DHW system. Here, it is observed that in winter the energy is mainly
supplied by the heat pumps, while in summer it is mainly supplied by
the solar collectors.
It is also of importance to verify that the system is able to satisfy the
demand temperature requirements. The 48 °C of the DHW consumption
are satisfied through the whole year, except at some specific hours in
winter. Fig. 13 shows some points where the temperature decreases
below the set point imposed in the simulation. This problem cannot be
solved by increasing the capacity of the auxiliary equipment or the heat
pumps did not solve the system response without setting an un-
reasonably sized system. Thus, these temperature drops are attributed
to the system thermal inertia. Nonetheless, the results are still within
the DHW range temperatures recommended by ASPE [22].
4.2.2. Heating results and analysis
To evaluate the heating system in this residential building, the SHP
system is connected to 18 apartments selected by their location in the
buildings. This is done by turning on the heating circuit individually on
each apartment according to its own thermostat. This methodology
helps to study the heating SHP system performance individually for
each air node. Then, for each of the three floors studied, three different
kinds of dwellings are analyzed: 2 apartments located on the north side,
2 apartments located on the south side and 2 apartments located on the
middle transversal section of the building. Each time the system model
is coupled to one of the air nodes, the adjacent thermal zones are set to
a minimal temperature of 22 °C with the Type 56 heating subroutine, so
the system is modelled as the other apartments are already heated.
Thus, the heating system performance figures are shown in Table 11.
The hydraulic pumps consumption is negligible for this system and it is
not considered.
First, it is of interest to notice that the annual energy demands of
each dwelling are very different. According to the simulation, the first
floor apartments are the ones with the higher heating energy con-
sumption, while the third stage comprises the less heated ones. It is
observed that the heating demand of the 3 types of apartments analyzed
here vary in more than 2.7 times.
On the other hand, the values of SPFsyst,heat obtained are greater than
the ones obtained in the DHW system. This is due to the lower operating

Fig. 12. Monthly system energy balances. (FPC: Flat Plate collectors, ETC: Evacuated Tube Collectors).

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Fig. 13. Punctual temperature decreases in winter.

temperature of the system’s heat pump comparing to the case of the
DHW system, leading it to operate more efficiently. This is evident in
the SPFHP,heat figures, far superior to the SPFHP,DHW encountered in the
DHW system. It is also observed that the heating system has pro-
portionally lower overall solar contribution. The solar fraction figures
obtained are significantly lower because there is a minor relation be-
tween the maximum possible solar power, due to the solar collector’s
total area, and the heat load in each dwelling. One of the most inter-
esting results in the heating system is that these operating temperatures
in the water storage tank do not vary much in each of the systems si-
mulated because of the same control logic used in each one. This is
evidenced in the low standard deviation of the ηave,col and the SPFHP,heat,
which depends mainly on these temperatures. In this case, the annual
electric energy consumption of the SHP system using FPC is 202,233
kWh and of the system using ETC 191,830 kWh.
It is a tendency to obtain smaller system performance in the
dwellings that require less thermal energy through the year. It can be
concluded that at lower dwellings heating demand, the heating circuit
of the radiant slab is less active while the heat pump and solar collectors
continue to maintain the water storage tank at high temperature; then,
more important heat losses occur in the storage tank. On the other
hand, comparing the same types of dwelling and solar collector type,
the solar fraction figures are higher if the seasonal heating demand is
lower. Thus, the highest relative solar contributions are achieved in the
third floor. This happens because the heat pump operates in the system
mainly when the space heating circuit is active; then, the solar collec-
tor’s relative contribution is higher if the dwelling activates this circuit
less often. Also, in these cases the solar collectors are able to maintain
the water storage at higher temperatures, explaining the slightly lower
SPFHP,heat in the third floor dwellings. Fig. 14 presents the monthly
energy balance of the heating system, for an apartment located on the
fifth floor in the middle section, whose SPFsyst,heat figures are close to the
mean values. It is observed that the heating demand is greater in
winter, and in every month the heat loss of the system is relatively very
important.
The analyse of the quasi-constant individual components perfor-
mance on every dwelling, plus the observation that the SPF depends
almost exclusive on the energy losses of the water storage tank, lead to
the possibility to extend the results obtained with individual compo-
nents to a theoretical centralized system. This system would consist on
the sum of every individual set simulated (one per dwelling) but with
only one water storage tank of 23.4 m3 (0.3 m3 per heated apartment
floor). Then, applying the SPF definition of Eq. (2), by adding all the
useful heating energy and the electrical energy consumption of the

Table 11
Heating system performance figures for annual operation.
Apartment SPFsyst,heat SPFHP,heat Fsol ηave,col Qu,heat
[–] [–] [%] [%] [kWh]

FPC ETC FPC ETC FPC ETC FPC ETC FPC ETC

Type A, 1st stage, East 4.75 4.93 4.46 4.45 9.8 13.3 43 58.2 25,732 25,675
Type A, 1st stage, West 4.79 5.01 4.47 4.46 10.4 13.3 44.9 57.8 25,390 25,681
Type A, 3rd stage, East 4.58 5.00 4.4 4.38 16.6 22.8 36.5 50.6 11,631 11,926
Type A, 3rd stage, West 4.59 4.81 4.39 4.36 16.7 21.9 37.5 50.5 11,918 12,104
Type A, 5th stage, East 4.65 4.9 4.44 4.43 11.0 16.1 37.8 55.1 19,462 19,468
Type A, 5th stage, West 4.68 4.86 4.44 4.41 11.6 15.4 40.6 54.7 19,955 20,157
Type E, 1st stage, East 4.68 4.90 4.38 4.36 11.7 16.2 41.1 57.3 20,298 20,290
Type E, 1st stage, West 4.70 4.88 4.36 4.35 12.2 15.9 43.3 56.7 20,478 20,604
Type E, 3rd stage, East 4.46 4.78 4.3 4.28 18.5 25.4 35.8 50.4 9970.8 10,080
Type E, 3rd stage, West 4.44 4.70 4.27 4.25 19.1 25.3 36.5 49.8 9837.6 9968.0
Type E, 5th stage, East 4.61 4.88 4.36 4.34 12.5 18.0 38.5 55.5 17,327 17,304
Type E, 5th stage, West 4.59 4.81 4.33 4.32 13.1 17.6 40.1 54.4 17,221 17,334
Type F, 1st stage, East 4.69 4.92 4.38 4.37 11.7 16.1 41.7 57.6 20,629 20,589
Type F, 1st stage, West 4.70 4.90 4.37 4.36 11.9 15.8 43.1 57.2 20,887 20,925
Type F, 3rd stage, East 4.49 4.80 4.31 4.28 19.0 26.2 35.9 50.7 9744.3 9746.5
Type F, 3rd stage, West 4.46 4.72 4.28 4.26 18.9 25.2 36.5 50.1 9979.5 10,040
Type F, 5th stage, East 4.61 4.88 4.36 4.34 13.3 19.1 38.4 55.5 16,175 16,180
Type F, 5th stage, West 4.59 4.82 4.33 4.32 13.1 18.0 39.5 54.5 16,845 16,870
Average results 4.61 4.86 4.37 4.27 13.1 19.0 39.5 54.3 – –
Standard Deviation 0.0989 0.081 0.057 0.059 3.14 4.22 2.72 2.90 – –

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J. Vega, C. Cuevas
Fig. 14. Monthly energy balance of the fifth floor, east middle section apartment. (FPC: Flat Plate collectors, ETC: Evacuated Tube Collectors).
individual systems, it is found a SPFglobal,syst,heat of 4.64 using FPC and
4.88 using ETC.
It is important to verify that the system is able to satisfy the thermal
comfort requirements. In each air node, coupled to the SHP system
model, it is found that the temperature oscillates around the target
temperature. This is exemplified in the temperature evolution of the
same dwelling of Fig. 14 during the winter, which fits well with the
mean SPFsyst,heat obtained, shown in Fig. 15. The temperature drops are
due to the heating schedule, they correspond to the night periods.
Lastly, it is worth of mentioning that the Evacuated Tube Collectors
are the best performing solar panels used for this climate. They have
performed better for every system analyzed independently, improving
significantly the system performance figure.
4.3. Analysis of the results and discussion
In this study a distributed system for heating and DHW is simulated
by considering a typical apartment building located in Concepción,
southern Chile. According to the results, the DHW system presents a
SPFsyst,DHW of 3.93 with FPC and 4.27 with ETC and the heating system
a SPFglobal,syst,heat of 4.64 with FPC and 4.88 with ETC. These values are
considered as very promising for this technology in Chile, by con-
sidering that typical SPF for this kind of system are in the range from 3
to 5. According to the results, the combination of heat pumps with ETCs
give the better performance, but this solution will be more expensive
due to the higher price of the ETC compared to FPC. In a further study
the effect of climate, building typology and thermal energy demand
should be considered. Furthermore, some hypothesis developed in this
study must still be improved and validated with a more detailed si-
mulation of the system, which are detailed hereafter.
The system considered in this analysis is divided in two solar heat
Fig. 15. Typical temperatures obtained in midwinter.
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Applied Thermal Engineering 141 (2018) 565–578
pump systems, one for the heating and other one for the domestic hot
water. Both thermal energy demands could be produced by only one
solar heat pump system in a centralized system, but in this case a se-
parated system was considered to simplify the system simulation and its
controllability. The system proposed in this study can benefit of an
improved performance (better SPF), because the heat pump coupled to
the heating system can work at a lower temperature (water supplied at
35 °C) than in a centralized system, which must produce water at a
higher temperature (close to 50 °C). According to Hadorn [2], mixing of
two fluids at different temperatures increases the energetic losses of the
system. From the point of view of the investment, the solution proposed
in this study has obviously a higher cost. In a future simulation a cen-
tralized system should be considered with an economic analysis in
order to develop the technical–economic analysis of both distributed
and centralized systems.
On the other hand, the domestic hot water system considered in this
study is analyzed as a centralized system by considering the whole
DHW demand of the building, but for the heating system the analysis is
developed individually as a distributed system. In this hypothesis, the
weighed behaviour of a distributed system is assumed identical to the
behaviour of a centralized system. This is a good approach when the
heating demand of most of the distributed loads are similar in magni-
tude and trend during the season. In spite of that, there is a scale factor
that this hypothesis does not consider: a bigger equipment is more ef-
ficient at full load than a smaller one. This is not a realistic situation,
but it can be used as a first approach to simulate this kind of system,
which can be then optimized with a centralized heat pump and with a
centralized or distributed thermal energy storage system. On the other
hand, in the simulation of the global heating system, the building
heating demand is not simulated for the entire building due to the
complexity of the simulation and due to some convergence issues. Thus,
J. Vega, C. Cuevas
only 18 representative apartments of the 78 apartments are considered,
and then it is assumed that the weighed behaviour of these 18 apart-
ments is the same than the behaviour of the entire building. This is
considered as a good compromise between an only one global heating
demand and a detailed distributed heating demand, in terms of com-
plexity and precision. In most of simulations found in literature the
apartment building heating demand is considered as an overall unique
heating demand with simplified models that do not consider wall
thermal inertias and the proper modelling of radiant slabs.
The overall system performance of the system based on solar heat
pump can be compared to a conventional heating system based on
natural gas combustion, by determining the primary energy consump-
tion and the equivalent CO2 emissions of both systems. In both cases an
annual overall heating energy demand of 1,310,665 kWh (932,295
kWh for heating and 378,370 kWh for DHW) is considered. In the case
of the SHP system the total annual electric energy consumption is
298,373 kWh with FPC and 280,437 kWh with ETC, by considering a
primary energy factor of 2 (proposed by the Chilean Ministry of
Housing and Urban Planning), the primary energy consumption is
596,746 kWh with FPC and 560,874 kWh with ETC. In the case of the
CO2 emissions, the Chilean electric grid has an equivalent CO2 emis-
sions of 0.346 tCO2/MWh (Chilean Ministry of Energy). Thus, the
equivalent annual CO2 emissions of the SHP system is equal to 103 ton
of CO2 for the system using FPC and 97 ton of CO2 for the system using
ETC. On the other hand, if a heating system based on natural gas for the
same annual energy demand and by considering a primary energy
factor of 1.1 (proposed by the Chilean Ministry of Housing and Urban
Planning), the primary energy consumption is 1,441,731 kWh. For the
equivalent CO2 emissions, an emission factor of 0.202 tCO2/MWh is
considered. Thus, the equivalent annual CO2 emissions of this system is
equal to 265 ton of CO2. Thus, based on these results, the SHP system
requires between 58.6% and 61.1% less primary energy than the con-
ventional system and emits 61.9 to 63.4% less CO2 than the conven-
tional system; thus, the SHP system is more efficient and less con-
taminant than an equivalent system based on natural gas.
5. Conclusions
This work describes the thermal behaviour of a residential building
representative of the actual tendency of mid-rise apartments building
built in Chile. In its TRNSYS modelling and analysis, interesting ten-
dencies regarding its thermal behaviour are found. First, due to the high
thermal capacitance of the building it is able to maintain the air tem-
perature stable in short term in the building. Also, and most im-
portantly, in identical apartments it is identified a high dependence of
the heating demand with their location in the building. Thus, the first
floor has the highest heating loads per type of apartment.
On the other side, the heating SHP system modelled is coupled to
the building model. The heating demand of the 18 dwellings is suc-
cessfully satisfied with the system design of a 9 kW heat pump sup-
ported by 8 m2 of solar collector’s aperture area. The most demanding
apartment has been successfully heated; thus, by extension the system
can also satisfy the rest of the non-simulated dwellings. The low stan-
dard deviations found in the ηave,col and SPFHP,heat figures evidence the
similar performance of the system components in every thermal zone
evaluated due to the similar operating temperatures in the water sto-
rage tank. Thus, the performance figure of the system is mainly de-
pendent on the dwelling demand profile. Then, by extension it can be
assumed that a centralized system, where each heat pump and solar
collector contributes energy to a single 23.4 m3 water storage tank, will
have a SPF resulting from integrating all the energy flows of each in-
dividual system. Then, it can be predicted a global system performance
figure of 4.64 using FPC and 4.88 using ETC. Nonetheless, a complete
evaluation of the system design in every dwelling of the building is
necessary to characterize it completely.
It is observed that the SPFsyst,heat is mainly dependent on the heating
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Applied Thermal Engineering 141 (2018) 565–578
demand of the dwelling: if the energy demand is low, then some of the
heat is lost in the water storage tank. These results show the importance
of a good insulation on this equipment, in order to reduce the energy
losses.
The SHP system used for heating presents better performance fig-
ures than the DHW system, reaching a SPFsyst,heat of 4.61 with FPC and
4.86 with ETC. It is mainly attributed to the lower sink temperature of
this system, which is also observed in the performance indicators of the
heat pump. The solar collectors help to improve the SPF of the DHW
system, due to the better performance during the summer due to the
high solar radiation levels reached in Concepción.
In general, it can be concluded that in heating systems based on heat
pumps, the storage tank losses can degrade considerably the system SPF
at low heating demands. On the other hand, the use of ETCs in SHP
systems give performances slightly better than FPCs, but the use of this
kind of technology introduces an extra cost that must be considered in a
further study for a better understanding. The SHP systems consume less
primary energy and have lower CO2 emissions compared to other
sources of heating and DHW systems, by reducing the local pollution.
Work perspectives arise when using this methodology. First, eco-
nomic analysis sensibility can be done using the same methodology
used for the equipments sizing, but selecting different solar collector
areas for the DHW system. Also, it could be interesting to study the
solar collectors performance when varying their set-point exhaust
temperature.
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the Chilean research agency CONICYT
through the research project FONDECYT 1150965.
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