TRNSYS/GROCS Simulation of the TECH House I Ground-Coupled-Series Solar-Assisted Heat-Pump System

摘要

The series solar-assisted heat-pump heating system with ground-coupled storage in The University of Tennessee's TECH House I in Knoxville, Tennessee, has been modeled using TRNSYS/GROCS and was compared to the experimental performance for the 1980-1981 heating season. The simulation results were within 8% of the experimental measurements. Both simulation and experimental results showed that ground coupling of thermal storage led to the elimination of electric-resistance backup heat and a large reduction in the peak heating demand of the house. Results of a parametric study showed that, in general, a ground-coupled storage tank performs better than a storage tank place outdoors in the Knoxville area. Application of a next-generation heat pump resulted in the most significant impact on the seasonal performance factor. As expected, higher-performance collectors and larger collector areas led to higher system seasonal performance. An economic analysis showed that the series solar-heat-pump system cannot economically compete with the stand-alone heat-pump system in the Knoxville area. (ERA citation 08:023318)