Development and Validation of Air-to-Water Heat Pump Model for Greenhouse Heating

Abstract

This study proposes a building energy simulation (BES) model of an air-to-water heat pump (AWHP) system integrated with a multi-span greenhouse using the TRNSYS-18 program. The proposed BES model was validated using an experimental AWHP and a multi-span greenhouse installed in Kyungpook National University, Daegu, South Korea (latitude 35.53° N, longitude 128.36° E, elevation 48 m). Three AWHPs and a water storage tank were used to fulfill the heat energy requirement of the three-span greenhouse with 391.6 m2 of floor area. The model was validated by comparing the following experimental and simulated results, namely, the internal greenhouse temperature, the heating load of the greenhouse, heat supply from the water storage tank to the greenhouse, heat pumps’ output water temperature, power used by the heat pumps, coefficient of performance (COP) of the heat pump, and water storage tank temperature. The BES model’s performance was evaluated by calculating the root mean square error (RMSE) and the Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) coefficient of validation results. The overall results correlated well with the experimental and simulated results and encouraged adopting the BES model. The average calculated COP of the AWHP was 2.2 when the outside temperature was as low as −13 °C. The proposed model was designed simply, and detailed information of each step is provided to make it easy to use for engineers, researchers, and consultants.