Design and evaluation of an engine driven combined compression and absorption ground or air source heat pump

The potential exists to make fuel burning heating systems much more fuel efficient. The ideal heating system would consist of an ideal fuel burning engine driving a Carnot heat pump. The cold reservoir for the engine and the heat pump could be the outside air, or alternatively the ground or ground water, which may be higher in temperature than the outside air. However, this ideal should be recognized as a standard, but not a goal, because such a system if achievable would have an infinite capital cost. The most efficient and possibly the most cost effective practical heating system may be a well considered, designed and analyzed combination of various heating techniques, such as the proposed system which consists of natural gas driving an internal combustion engine with the mechanical power driving a compression heat pump and the moderate temperature rejected heat from the engine driving a two stage absorption heat pump, and with the evaporators having the option of utilizing either heat from the outside air or from the ground water, depending upon which is at the higher temperature. This paper defines a building and location and evaluates the this system relative to the more conventional heating systems, andmore » shows that this system can yield an 92% fuel saving relative to electric resistance, 84% saving relative to an electric heat pump, 72% saving relative to an electric ground coupled heat pump and 75% savings relative to a natural gas fueled boiler or furnace.« less