Dynamic test method for the determination of the global seasonal performance factor of heat pumps used for heating, cooling and domestic hot water preparation

The necessity of innovation on the field of renewable energy systems imposes on the industry to develop faster and faster new products or product assemblies while managing perfectly the quality of the products. In order to accelerate this process, a first version of a dynamic emulation test method has been developed. Since the test bench emulates the building that is connected to the system being tested, the test can be carried out under “quasi”-realistic, dynamic conditions: dynamic weather conditions and occupancy profiles are used as well as a simulated building and heating/cooling system. This approach opens a large variety of possible test schedules since the simulated building, the heating system, weather conditions and occupancy can be changed freely. A methodology for the definition of a reference test scenario is analysed in this paper, for the case of a geothermal heat pump, allowing the application of the method to other systems, climates or buildings. The difference between real annual performance (in this study the annual simulation case) and performance obtained by reduced tests using this first approach is below 5 percent for four different climates and 4 different test sequences. The test result is the monthly and annual energy consumption and performance of the system split into SPF for heating, cooling and hot water production. A method has been developed that fits well for monthly and yearly energy figures for all modes. However, the errors of SPF values have not been reduced using this method. Therefore, the method is, at the date of publication, being updated to further improvement the approach.