Dynamic simulation of a solar based ground source heat pump including an electric energy storage for an office application

Solar based energy conversion systems are becoming a promising alternative to fossil fuel based technologies. In this paper the attention is focused on a photovoltaic (PV) system satisfying energy demand of an office building. Renewable electric energy available from PV panels is partly used to activate a ground source heat pump to meet space heating and cooling dem and and partly used for other electric loads (lights, printers, computers, etc.). Energy and environmental analysis of the proposed system considering different PV field capacity (4.5 kW, 6.0 kW, 7.5 kW) and electric battery size (3.2 kWh, 6.4 kWh, 9.6 kWh ) is performed with dynamic simulation software TRNSYS. A saving in terms of primary energy and a reduction of equivalent CO 2 emission up to 97% can be obtained by renewable based with respect to a conventional system consisting of a natural gas fuelled bo iler for space heating, an electric chiller for space cooling and the national electric grid for electric demand.