Dynamic simulation of a combined solar system including phase change material storages and its experimental validation

On the one hand, solar-assisted heat pumps have become a popular choice for efficient, environmentally-friendly heating and hot water production. During the night, it is also possible to produce cold using solar collectors, which would meet building's air-conditioning needs. Thermal energy storage systems are also essential for balancing energy supply and demand, particularly with intermittent sources such as solar power. Phase Change Materials (PCM) offer better storage density over a low temperature range, which means that the size of latent storage can be limited compared with sensible storage. This paper presents a new storage geometry, acting as both a plate heat exchanger and a storage unit, which can be charged and discharged simultaneously. The modelling of this PCM LTES is presented in a solar-assisted heat pump. The aim of the study is to dynamically simulate this system combining solar-assisted heat pump and four PCM storage units, for 7 days in winter and summer. This will make it possible to verify the benefits of the system compared with conventional technologies (electricity and natural gas) or the use of sensible storages in terms of energy and environmental criteria. A sensitivity study is carried out to determine the ideal system design parameters, using a multi-criteria decision-making method. Finally, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is carried out on the system's use life cycle phase. The results show the benefits of using this system compared with conventional technologies. Future work will focus on the optimisation of operating parameters such as flow rates, and the LCA over the entire life cycle of the system.