Energy Savings by Use of Heat Pump Water Heater to Compliment Solar Water Heaters as a Hybrid Design

Heating requirements in particular, water heating in hotels constitutes approximately 28% of the total energy costs, which translates to higher emission levels to the environment. Hoteliers have adopted the use of emerging and popular technologies mostly renewable energy technologies. They include the use of solar water heaters, heat pump water heaters, and efficient boiler among others. From the design calculation and sizing, two HPWH with a combined heating value of 180KW are selected to meet the demand of 89.07 Kwh/Day and act a backup where the solar fails to raise the required load of 133.60 Kwh/Day, which is 60% of the daily demand. Economic evaluation is carried out to determine the payback costs and cash flow relating to the replacement and operation of the system. Calculation of the payback period yielded 2.04 and 1.74 years respectively for scenarios A and B. Positive cash flows are found after 5 years period and estimated IRR of39.96%, 49.93% for the scenarios A & B respectively. This design is expected to produce hot water 24 hours a day meeting the demand and fulfilling the study’s objective.