Comparative Experimental Study on Houses Fitted with a Solar Roof, Buried Pipes and a Heat Pump

Summary

The heating system studied designated SOL 3 is a system coupling a water/ water heat pump, hurried pipes, a solar roof, a domestic hot water production and heating floors.

Fives houses sold in the open French market and fitted with this SOL 3 system were the subject of instrumental and experimental analysis during the 82–83 heating season.

The instrumentation is made up of heat meters, electric energy meters, operating time meters, temperature sensors in the soil. The seasonal performance coefficients for the heat pump were measured at between 2.4 and 2.8 for the houses where the solar roof was not in easy use and came out at between 3 and 3.5 for the house whose solar roof operated well.

In this last case the annual operating coefficient is contained between 2.5 and 2.9.

The consumption taken by auxiliaries represents between 15 % and 20 % of the total electric consumption.

In the immediate vicinity of the burried pipes (less than 10 cm) the threshold for freezing was probably (and certainly for one of the houses) reached.

At 20 cm from the pipes, the temperatures did not fall below 1°C.