Towards optimal design and operation of Heat Pumps in residential application [23]

Substantial emission reductions are necessary for mitigating environmental impacts in all sectors. For example, the building sector in Germany is responsible for up to 40 % of emissions. A large share of these are for heating purposes. Typically, gas or oil boilers are used to heat buildings. Replacing these heating technologies with Heat Pump systems is, therefore, the next step toward reducing emissions in the building sector. To exploit the potential of Heat Pump systems in a residential application, there is a need for optimal design and operation. While numerous theoretical studies exist on optimal design and operation in the literature, only a few experimental studies demonstrate the real potential.

This presentation gives insights into our Vapor Compression Laboratory (VCLab) to validate the optimal design and operation of Heat Pump systems for residential applications. For optimal design, we show the performance of well-designed Heat Pump systems compared to under- and oversized systems. For optimal operation, we show the performance of adaptive defrosting strategies and model predictive control using the Hardware-in-the-Loop approach.

The results evaluate the potential of Heat Pump systems for residential applications and recommend perspectives for further investigation. Furthermore, we prove that careful design is key to enabling optimal operation. There is a huge potential for optimal design and operation to be shifted from academia to practice to pave the way toward low-emission heating supply in buildings.