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Performance Study of the Glass Vacuum Tube Photovoltaic/Thermal Heat Pump System

Author(s): Hongbing Chena*, Ping Weib
a Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, 1 Zhanlanguan Road, Beijing 100044, China
b Beijing Polytechnic College, 106 Shimen Road, Beijing 100048, China
International Journal of Smart Grid and Clean Energy, vol. 2, no. 2, May 2013: pp. 170–176
ISSN: 2315-4462
Digital Object Identifier: 10.12720/sgce.2.2.170-176  

Abstract: Many studies found that the decrease in photovoltaic (PV) cell temperature by 10 oC can improve the efficiency by 0.5-0.7% based on the reference efficiency of 15%.  In this paper, the refrigerant R134a is used to cool down the PVs and thus improve the efficiency. The novel glass vacuum tube PV/thermal (PV/T) panel, made of 6 glass vacuum tube – PV module – aluminium sheet – cooper tube sandwiches connected in series, is coupled with a heat pump system acting as the evaporator. Numerical models are established for the performance study. The simulation results indicate that the electrical efficiency is mainly affected by the solar radiation, while the thermal efficiency is mainly affected by the ambient temperature. The annual mean thermal efficiency, electrical efficiency and COP are 0.659, 0.136 and 3.8, respectively.
Keywords: Photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) collector, heat pump, COP

Full Paper.pdf

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