Solar assisted heat pumps for energy conservation in environmental control

The building system selected for this study was a typical modern apartment complex consisting of eight apartments in one outer shell. The predominant practice in the last few years has been to use electric resistance heating and mechanical refrigeration. We have investigated the energy usage of a proposed apartment complex considering six other alternatives developed around the idea of using some version of existing heat pumps for heating and cooling augmented with solar energy storage with an electric resistance heating backup system. These proposed systems have the important feature that they may be retrofitted to existing complexes as the economics of the conversion become favorable and the present equipment requires replacement. In addition to heat pump systems other feasible alternatives have been investigated with minimum energy requirements as a design constraint. (WDM)