Application of a ground source heat pump system with PCM-embedded radiant wall heating for buildings

Abstract

This paper deals with the utilization of a renewable energy-based integrated system with the latent heat storage option for building thermal management systems. Both energy and exergy-based assessments of the current combined system are conducted. For this purpose, phase change material (PCM)-embedded radiant wall heating system using solar heating and ground source heat pump (GSHP) is studied thermodynamically. Heat is essentially stored within the PCMs as used in the panels to increase the effectiveness. The stored heat is released when the solar energy is not available. In the thermal energy storage analyses, four different PCMs are considered. The present results show that the overall first - law (energy) and second - law (exergy) efficiencies of the PCM-free radiant heating system are much lower than the case with the PCM-embedded radiant heating system. Therefore, it is confirmed that the energy efficiency increases from 62% to 87% while the exergy efficiency rises from 14% to 56% with the option where SP26E PCM is employed accordingly.