Dynamic simulation of a solar electric driven heat pump for an office building located in Southern Italy

The paper investigates the introduction of a solar electric driven heat pump in an office building characterizedby low energy demand with respect to the current national building stock and located in Southern Italy.Dynamic simulations are carried out in order to evaluate the thermo-economic performance of the analyzedsystem considering different photovoltaic peak powers (4500 W - 7500 W), tilt angles (20° - 50°), electricityand natural gas unitary prices. To satisfy heating and cooling demand a heat pump activated by electric energyavailable from solar photovoltaic panels is considered. The system based on solar electric driven heat pumpshows primary energy saving and equivalent dioxide carbon emission reduction up to about 81 % incomparison to the reference conventional system based on a natural gas fired boiler and an electric chiller.The results highlight that the solar energy system is more competitive when the electricity and natural gasprices are high and government incentives will be provided.