Laboratory and field testing of a residential heat pump retrofit for a DC solar nanogrid

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that residential heat pumps can be effectively powered on DC with minimal modifications, reducing energy losses and lowering electricity costs when integrated into DC nanogrids.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence and simulations showing the feasibility and benefits of DC-powered heat pumps in residential nanogrids, including cost savings and performance insights.

Findings

DC-powered heat pumps perform comparably to AC ones with minor modifications.

Connecting DC devices reduces energy losses and lowers electricity bills.

Retrofit options can save up to 16.7% annually on energy costs.

Abstract

Residential buildings are increasingly integrating large devices that run natively on direct current (DC), such as solar photovoltaics, electric vehicles, stationary batteries, and DC motors that drive heat pumps and other major appliances. Today, these natively-DC devices typically connect within buildings through alternating current (AC) distribution systems, entailing significant energy losses due to conversions between AC and DC. This paper investigates the alternative of connecting DC devices through DC distribution. Specifically, this paper shows through laboratory and field experiments that an off-the-shelf residential heat pump designed for conventional AC systems can be powered directly on DC with few hardware modifications and little change in performance. Supporting simulations of a DC nanogrid including {historical heat pump and rest-of-house load measurements,} a solar photovoltaic array, and a stationary battery suggest that connecting these devices through DC distribution could decrease annual electricity bills by 12.5% with an after-market AC-to-DC heat pump retrofit and by 16.7% with a heat pump designed to run on DC.