During the last years, many combined solar thermal heat pump systems have entered the market for residential heating systems. Regarding testing and assessment of these systems, existing methods and standards are limited on national and international level. Currently, several approaches are developed and presented. The precondition for any such work is a thorough review of the existing market, revealing for example the relevance of non-standard components and configurations. More than 100 SHP systems were researched and documented recently, and a comparative analysis is presented in this paper. The systems' concept and function is analysed as well as collector and heat pump characteristics. More "classical" configurations are found to be dominating within all analyses. Nevertheless, it can be shown that non-standard concepts - e.g., utilising solar energy as heat pump source or incorporating unglazed or PVT collectors - are most various. As a result, the need for suitable testing and assessment methods is motivated.
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