A Design, Economic and Greenhouse Gas Assessment of Space Heating and Cooling Using an Absorption Heat Pump Integrating Solar, Geothermal, and Natural Gas Sources

Abstract

Heating and cooling of a variety of building designs located in Upstate New York with floor areas ranging from 250 m2 to 1000 m2 is modeled in this work. A commercial-off-the-shelf absorption chiller/heater system is used to satisfy the air conditioning demand through solar thermal and geothermal energy sources with natural gas as a backup fuel. The proposed system’s economic and greenhouse gas emissions performance is assessed against a standard electrically powered ground-source heat pump system and a traditional natural gas furnace and electrical vapor compression chiller system. Our proposed system performs significantly better than either of the standard system types in terms of both economics – showing positive Net Present Values – and greenhouse gas – showing reductions in emissions of a factor of five or better. Hence, our proposed system would save building owners money and reduce their environmental impact simultaneously.