Thermal performance analysis of a heat pump-based energy system to meet heating and cooling demand of residential buildings

The building sector significantly impacts greenhouse gas emissions, making decarbonisation of heating and cooling essential for achieving carbon neutrality. Replacing conventional fossil fuel technologies with low-carbon alternatives like reversible heat pumps (HPs), alongside integrating thermal energy storage systems, can provide flexibility by reducing thermal demand during peak hours—which could also be reflected in economic savings. In view of this, the detailed dynamic model of an energy system based on a reversible HP integrated with thermal stores is presented in this paper. The adopted configuration has been designed to meet not only heat demand during cold months, but also cooling demand over summer, which is expected to increase in future years according to climate projections. A multi-zone modelling approach was employed to simulate a residential building. Internal heat gains due to appliances, lighting, and occupancy schedules were incorporated in the model to accurately represent the zonal temperature level control in the thermal envelope. The performance of the energy system utilising the reversible HP was compared to when a gas boiler is used, demonstrating the capabilities of low-carbon technologies to meet thermal demand during different seasons of the year. Moreover, the performance of HP-based system under extreme weather conditions was evaluated. The HP configuration consumed 1.15–2.34 times less monthly energy to meet the thermal needs compared to the boiler-based system. The inclusion of internal heat gains showed a considerable effect, with a monthly energy consumption increment of up to 63.5 % observed for the HP-based energy system.