Experimental study of a photovoltaic solar-assisted heat-pump/heat-pipe system

A practical design for a heat pump with heat-pipe photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) collectors is presented. The hybrid system is called the photovoltaic solar-assisted heat-pump/heat-pipe (PV-SAHP/HP) system. To focus on both actual demand and energy savings, the PV-SAHP/HP system was designed to be capable of operating in three different modes, namely, the heat-pipe, solar-assisted heat pump, and air-source heat-pump modes. Based on solar radiation, the system operates in an optimal mode. A series of experiments were conducted in Hong Kong to study the performance of the system when operating in the heat-pipe and the solar-assisted heat-pump modes. Moreover, energy and exergy analyses were used to investigate the total PV/T performance of the system.