Final Report – Part 6 Annex 32: Economical heating and cooling systems for low energy houses
System concepts New developments of multifunctional heat pumps Since the mid of the nineties low energy buildings with a significantly reduced energy consumption down to ultra-low energy standard (typical space heating energy need of 15 kWh/(m2a)) or even net zero energy consumption (on an annual basis by an integration of on-site renewable energy systems) have been realised. These building concepts recently show strong market growth in different European countries. Many governments address the spread of low energy buildings as a major strategy to reach climate protection targets according to the Kyoto protocol. Heat pump markets are growing in many countries as well. Low energy buildings have significantly different load characteristics compared to conventional existing buildings. This requires adapted system solutions to entirely use energyefficiency potentials for the remaining energy needs. Integrated heat pump solutions have favourable features for the use in low energy houses. The main advantages are the potential for internal heat recovery and simultaneous operation to cover different building needs at the same time as well as installation space and cost benefits. This leads to a significantly improved system performance in an adequate capacity range to reduce primary energy consumption and cut CO2-emissions and costs. However, in many countries, no adequate system solutions are available on the market or energy performance of available and newly-introduced low energy house technology is not yet approved by field experience. Therefore, system development and field approval of functionality and real-world operational performance of the systems are needed. These are the main working areas of IEA HPP Annex 32.