Konferensartikel

Heat pumps and micro-cogeneration technology for residential applications are an alternative for energy saving and for improving the energy efficiency. Nowadays; several nomenclatures are used for these technologies; creating confusion within this field. This situation causes that the commercial brands could not offer their products clearly to the market as the concepts and terminology they use are usually incorrect. This paper clarifies these concepts using thermodynamics; and provides clear classification criteria considering the heat pump and the power cycle as the starting point. Therefore; this paper provides an update review of heat pumps and micro-cogeneration which could be of great importance in the future for achieving the goals of the European legislation; especially those related to energy supply in buildings. It emphasizes the principles of operation and the advantages of the different devices as well as the consideration of this technology as renewable energy.

Energy Efficiency; Heat Pump; Micro-cogeneration; Distributed Generation