Theoretical Study of the Performance of a Novel “Sandwich” Thermal Roof for Heat Pump Operation: Konya province case

Limited conventional fossil fuel resources, economic and environmental problems associated with them have emphasized the need for renewable energy supply options. Solar thermal applications along with heat pumps have attracted considerable interest towards sustainable solutions providing various technical, economic and environmental benefits. In this study, the integration of unique polyethylene loop with black painted aluminium absorber, to form a “Sandwich” structure thermal roof collector, in conjunction with a heat pump system is examined. The roof is designed to act as a roof element that propitiously blends into surroundings thus avoiding ‘add-on’ appearance and evaporator/collector for solar assisted heat pump operation. A detailed thermal model is developed to investigate the performance of the sandwich roof unit and heat pump combination. Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software is used to simulate the thermal performance of the novel system under prevailing weather conditions of Konya, Turkey. The simulation results show that the roof unit could produce nearly 17 kW useful heat gain annually employing a 20 m² of unique thermal roof collector. The maximum heat gain is theoretically attained as 3kW on July with 8% thermal efficiency while the least electrical power consumption is noted as 0.9 kW to drive the compressor in heat pump operation with the maximum COP of 3.44. The system is able to serve in the built environment with an enhanced efficiency.