Analysis of Energy Consumption of a Thermo-Technical System with an Absorption Heat Pump

Abstract

: This paper discusses two different thermo-technical systems for heating and cooling the three-story office building under consideration. Data were collected on natural gas energy consumption over three-year period. The measured data on energy consumption for heating and cooling the building with an absorption heat pump using natural gas as fuel was analyzed. The only device that can replace the absorption heat pump in both the heating and cooling seasons is the vapor compression heat pump. The absorption heat pump has higher energy consumption than the vapor compression heat pump and its price is about 30% higher, but the financial cost of energy from natural gas is about 39% lower than the electricity cost of the vapor compression heat pump. The absorption heat pump is a better solution than the compression heat pump because the total financial costs, which include the investment costs and the energy costs over 20 years of operation, are about 9% lower and because the absorption heat pump heats up to an ambient temperature of ‒ 20 °C, which is not the case with the vapor compression heat pump.