Experimental study of dual-source heat pump coupled with water-cooled photovoltaic/thermal system

This paper presents a study on an innovative solar-air dual heat source heat pump coupled with a water-cooled photovoltaic/thermal system. The research investigated the real-time operation of solar electrical and thermal efficiency, as well as the coefficient of performance Field experimental platform construction and experimental testing were conducted. The experimental results show that when running the system in composite mode, the average electrical efficiency in the two phases was 16.79% and 18.33%, while the average collector efficiency reached 42.72% and 98.94%, respectively. Under typical autumn working conditions, the heat pump’s coefficient of performance with the fans off and on was 4.37 and 4.73 respectively on sunny days, and under cloudy day conditions, it reached 3.76 and 4.20 respectively. With the fans on, the average collector efficiency on a cloudy day increased by 3.34% compared with that without the fans, and the total average collector efficiency reached 310.5%. Compared with conventional single water-cooled photovoltaic/thermal systems or solar-assisted heat pump systems, the combination of these two systems, with the addition of both fins and fans which increased the heat transfer performance of the system and improved the stability and economy of the system’s operation, providing data to support the feasibility of a water-cooled photovoltaic/thermal coupled dual-source heat pump system.