Paper No 113 – Investigation of a Novel Hybrid Heat Pump Concept – 14th IEA Heat Pump Conference, Chicago, USA
Hybrid heat pumps can utilize two low-grade ambient heat sources to provide heating energy. However, efficient operation of two heat sources and its effect on heat source dimensioning has not been thoroughly examined. In this research, a hybrid heat pump is developed which can switch between an air heat exchanger and a ground source heat exchanger as the heat source. The hybrid heat pump interconnection also allows parallel operation of both heat sources. Based on an experimental investigation, a black box model is created including a suitable control strategy. An annual simulation for space heating of a domestic building is conducted. The hybrid heat pump provides about 18.9 MWh of heat while extracting only 47.1 % of this heat from the ground source heat exchanger. Parallel operation allows a heating capacity reduction of the ground source heat exchanger to about 80 % compared to a conventional ground source heat pump. The hybrid heat pump therefore allows a smaller design size.