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

Fuente: arXiv
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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Farha, Aaron H. P., Ore, Jonathan P., Pergantis, Elias N., Ziviani, Davide, Groll, Eckhard A., Kircher, Kevin J.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Farha, Aaron H. P.
Ore, Jonathan P.
Pergantis, Elias N.
Ziviani, Davide
Groll, Eckhard A.
Kircher, Kevin J.
author_facet Farha, Aaron H. P.
Ore, Jonathan P.
Pergantis, Elias N.
Ziviani, Davide
Groll, Eckhard A.
Kircher, Kevin J.
contents 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.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_18267
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Laboratory and field testing of a residential heat pump retrofit for a DC solar nanogrid
Farha, Aaron H. P.
Ore, Jonathan P.
Pergantis, Elias N.
Ziviani, Davide
Groll, Eckhard A.
Kircher, Kevin J.
Systems and Control
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.
title Laboratory and field testing of a residential heat pump retrofit for a DC solar nanogrid
topic Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.18267