Contributions to System Integration of PV and PVT Collectors with Heat Pumps in Buildings

A common approach to improve self-consumption of photovoltaic (PV) generation in buildings with heat pumps (HP) is to overload the thermal storage capacities during times with surplus PV generation (hereinafter referred to as thermal overloading). The impact of battery capacity and domestic hot water (DHW) consumption on the effectiveness of this method in a single-family home (SFH) is evaluated through numerical simulations. Increased battery capacity is shown to decrease the effectiveness of thermal overloading. Regarding DHW consumption, temporal concentration is shown to have a stronger influence on the effectiveness of thermal overloading than total energy. Furthermore, the potential of photovoltaic-thermal collectors (PVT) as heat exchangers for air/brine/water heat pumps (ABWHP) is estimated. The results show that the properties of PVT collectors with high thermal conductivity are in the feasible range for application in a well-insulated SFH in Central European climate.