Compact, modular plug & play building heat pump using automotive components
This paper introduces a modular plug & play heat pump concept designed to address key challenges in the decarbonization of residential buildings, particularly in multi-family homes where conventional heat pump systems often face spatial, acoustic or infrastructural limitations. The concept builds scalable system architecture and standardized components from automotive thermal management, offering compactness, reduced refrigerant charge and potential for low-cost deployment. In addition, the early integration of a fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) system and the direct integration of power electronics for compressor drive and supply are introduced as part of the heat pump design process, in order to underline the holistic design approach. Based on the presented heat pump concept the paper focuses on two main aspects. First, experimental measurements of key preliminary automotive components are conducted under typical building boundary conditions to show the general suitability for stationary heat pump application. Second, a model-based design methodology is introduced to determine the optimal heating capacity of a standardized module as well as component sizes by combining clustered weather data, annual heating load profiles and a numerical heat pump model. The compressor displacement is identified as a key design parameter and the proposed methodology enables an objective evaluation of how deviations from the optimal sizing affect annual energy performance. The findings underline the feasibility of the approach and provide a foundation for further optimization.