Abstract
A large pressure loss of the refrigerant flow occurred at the direct expansion type photovoltaic and thermal hybrid panel, which was adopted in the heat pump for an experimental (resaech)^<1)>. In this study, a new panel, which was a modification of the original panel, was made to reduce the pressure loss. Then, the thermal performance of the heat pump which used either one of the two types of the panels at a time was examined and the results were compared with each other. For the convenience, the panels without photovoltaic modules were used for the experiments. The pressure loss of the new panel decreased one fourth of that of the original panel. The increase of the COP of the heat pump with the new panel from the COP of the heat pump with the original panel was not so large as it could be seen clearly from the experimental results. The increase was estimated to be about 5 to 10%. The new panel would be suitable for commercial use.
