Energy analysis of heat pump water heaters coupled with air-based solar thermal collectors in Canada and the United States

Calene Treichel and Cynthia A. Cruickshank

Energy, 2021, vol. 221, issue C

Abstract: Heat pump water heaters (HPWHs) operate with two to three times the efficiency of electric water heaters, and over three times the efficiency of natural gas water heaters; however, this benefit is accompanied by a secondary space cooling effect that increases space heating costs. To mitigate this, HPWHs may be coupled with solar thermal collectors which preheat inlet air. The objective of this study was to compare the energy performance of HPWHs and solar-assisted HPWHs (SAHPWHs) across Canada and the United States, to determine where the SAHPWH could offset the space heating increase of HPWHs. This was done using an empirical model, with different modelling methods and assumptions that were assessed and compared. It was found that the SAHPWH could fully mitigate the space heating increase throughout winter, while decreasing the space heating load by 1–3%, and during the cooling season, decreasing the space cooling load by 7–15% in all climates studied. This research indicates that HPWHs and SAHPWHs have potential to lead a higher efficiency future, by reducing energy consumption for water heating beyond what is presently achievable with electric and natural gas storage tank water heaters.

Keywords: Solar thermal; Heat pump water heater; Energy performance; Energy reduction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544221000505
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:221:y:2021:i:c:s0360544221000505

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.119801

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().