Evaluations and Optimizations on Practical Performance of the Heat Pump Integrated with Heat-Source Tower in a Residential Area in Changsha, China

The heat-source tower (HST) integrated heat pump system has more potential in energy saving than air-source heat pump system in the Yangtze River region. However, the heat pump unit and HST had mismatch on operation in field tests. And the actual maximum load of the HST integrated heat pump system was generally smaller than its design load, which will lead to higher energy consumption, and therefore it is important to optimize the system with the climate characteristics of the Yangtze River region. The HST integrated heat pump system in a certain residential area in Changsha, China was taken for an example to be monitored in real time. And the practical energy performance and typical issues of the system were analyzed. The results showed that the system failed to achieve a high COP for its low part-load rate (PLR) with oversized capacity design and unreasonable control strategies. Based on the analysis, some suggestions were made in this paper, which gave solutions to the heating and cooling of residential buildings in the Yangtze River region.