A solar photovoltaic/thermal integrated heat pump (PV/T-HP) system was proposed. Refrigerant
R134a flowing inside the tubes below the PV cells
absorbs the solar heat and evaporates.The heated water produced by heat pump could be used to supply domestic hot water services combined with space heating
or to assist solar cooling system in buildings.The system’s thermodynamic and photovoltaic output characteristics for heating 180 L water up to 60℃ were investigated experimentally on a summer sunny day in Nanjing
China.The performances of the prototype for both electricity generation and water heating vs that for electricity generation only were compared.Results show that
the performance of PV cells without cooling is deteriorated greatly at noon
because of its higher working temperature.While for the PV/T-HP system
the cells is operated on a stable and uniform temperature condition