Optimal combination of an air-to-air thermoelectric heat pump with a heat recovery system to HVAC a passive house dwelling

The main objective of this research is to propose a HVAC system for an 80-100 m(2) passive house dwelling based on a thermoelectric air-to-air heat pump combined with a heat recovery unit. The computational parametric investigation demonstrates that the integration of the heat recovery unit significantly improves the coefficient of performance of the heat pump: 2-3 times for partial load operation and 12.5 % for maximum load. Moreover, the number of required modules to reach the maximum performance is at least 5 times lower.A second analysis assesses its seasonal heating performance in three climates as stated by the energy labeling Directive 2010/30/EU. The optimum number of thermoelectric modules in all cases is close to 15, regardless of the climate. This 15-modules thermoelectric heat pump provides a maximum heating capacity of 2500 W and 405 W for cooling, which compensates the typical internal heat gains and the transmission heat flux through the building envelope and the ventilation in the passive house dwelling. Finally, the analysis reveals that, in order to increase this cooling capacity, it is more convenient the improvement of the heat exchangers between the thermoelectric modules and the cooling air stream, rather than increasing the number of modules.

Automated summary

The main objective of this research is to propose a HVAC system for a passive house dwelling using a thermoelectric air-to-air heat pump and a heat recovery unit. The computational investigation shows that integrating the heat recovery unit significantly improves the performance of the heat pump and reduces the number of required modules. Another analysis evaluates the seasonal heating performance of the system in different climates and finds that the optimal number of thermoelectric modules is close to 15 in all cases. The study also suggests that improving the heat exchangers between the thermoelectric modules and the cooling air stream is more effective in increasing the cooling capacity than increasing the number of modules.