Experimental and analytical evaluation of exhaust air heat pumps in ventilation-based heating systems

Due to the significant energy loss in the building sector, energy efficiency of the buildings and their heating systems is gaining interest especially in the last decades. Application of exhaust air heat pumps as an energy efficient heating technology to cover the heating and venting demand of the building is becoming conventional. The exhaust air heat pumps are attracting considerable interest due to their normally reasonable price and small footprint. This heat pump type is often installed as part of an air based heating system together with electrical heaters. These electrical heaters are installed to cover the residual heating demand and/or to insure thermal comfort. The technology of exhaust air heat pumps has been investigated in several studies. Available studies on exhaust air heat pumps have tended mostly to focus on comparison between different technologies utilized in efficient buildings. Almost all of the existing studies have ignored the actual application of this technology in air based heating systems together with electrical heaters. In this sense, there is still a need for discussion on the influence of different buildings’ standards and control strategies on the heating system performance. The present paper aims to call into question the energy efficiency of exhaust air heat pumps under different boundary conditions. In this study, the results of a long time field monitoring are utilized in order to model the dynamic behavior of an exhaust air heat pump in MATLAB/Simulink. The impact of different boundary conditions on the heat pump’s efficiency is studied and additionally compared to previous studies. The developed model is used for annual simulations of air based hybrid heating systems in three different building standards. Finally, the influence of control strategy on the system performance is investigated. It is shown that under certain boundary conditions and control strategy, the studied system could provide an efficient heating system with acceptable user comfort. Nevertheless, applying conventional heating control methods or installing the system in buildings with high heating energy demand could lead to high electrical energy consumption and/or undesirable thermal comfort.