abstract
A case study for a planned multi-family house with ground-coupled heat pump is presented. The heat supply concept combines a high-level heat source with low temperature heat supply with decentral instantaneous water heaters and underfloor heating in a 4-pipe system. The system is simulated in TRNSYS to dimension the components and to predict the performance. A combination with photovoltaic-thermal collectors with horizontal ground heat exchanger ensures sustainable operation of the ground heat exchanger, and allows to reduce its required area by 50% without reducing the seasonal performance factor. In this study, two types of photovoltaic-thermal collectors are examined in detail: an uncovered collector with fins on the backside and an insulated collector. The uncovered collector’s advantages as the sole heat source for heat pumps are evi-dent only in undersized ground heat exchanger systems, but negligible in properly sized systems. Given that the price of the insulated collector is only one-third that of the uncovered photovoltaic-thermal collector, the insulated collector will be chosen for the building.