How heat pumps work: criteria for heat sources evaluation

This work proposes an innovative approach to heat sources evaluation for heat pump applications. The initial characterization of the suitable sources (i.e. air, ground, and water) is integrated with classical considerations about HVAC design. In particular, we aim to evaluate the operative performance of overall HP system when it is coupled with each source, separately. Then, final performances are ranked according to a proper energy/economy performance index. The paper starts dealing with the basic thermodynamic principles of heat pumps, focusing on the main effects of sources’ temperature on COP/EER values. Then, the paper illustrates the main pros and cons of typical heat sources and ground heat exchanger configurations. Finally, we show the achievable benefits of the proposed methodology through a test case.