Heat Pump with Integrated Latent Heat Storage for Flexible Heat Supply to Buildings

摘要

Heat pumps with thermal storages offer increased flexibility for optimized use of volatile renewable electricityand load shift. Latent heat storages provide best adaptation to the internal cycle of heat pumps, operating atconstant temperatures during evaporation and condensation. The concept for the integration of a latent heatstorage on the high-pressure side of a heat pumps refrigerant cycle and the thermal design of the storage arepresented. A novel heat exchanger-latent heat storage-cascade assures operation with unchanged temperatureand pressure lift of the heat pump, avoiding negative influence on the COP. A test plant of the novel heat pumpcycle is developed, starting from a commercial heat pump model. First result from laboratory experiments withregard to the thermal design of the storage and the cascaded working principle are reported. The function ofthe system is proven for both, charging and discharging the latent heat storage.