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The Netherlands is phasing out natural gas for home heating, creating a need for cleaner, quieter, and more space-efficient alternatives. While air-to-water heat pumps are now common, they can be noisy, work less efficiently in cold weather, and are often difficult to fit into dense urban areas.

This research develops and tests a new approach, a Building-Integrated Thermal (BIT) collector combined with a water-to-water heat pump. The BIT collector is built directly into a building’s façade, roof, or beneath solar panels, allowing it to capture heat from sunlight and the surrounding air without taking up extra space or changing the building’s appearance. The captured heat is stored in a buffer tank and then upgraded by the heat pump to provide both space heating and hot water.

The work included:

• Design and optimization of the BIT collector for efficient heat transfer.

• Testing the newly designed BIT collector behind different surface types (e.g., PVthermal panels, roof tiles) under real winter conditions to understand how wind, sunlight, and temperature affect performance.

• Building of a detailed simulation of the BIT + water-to-water heat pump system using TRNSYS software, including realistic Dutch weather, building types, and heating/hot water usage.

• Comparing the system’s annual performance to a standard air-to-water heat pump, focusing on energy efficiency, and integration into buildings.

The results show that the BIT system can work efficiently throughout the year, even during the night, while being quieter and more visually appealing than conventional systems. This makes it a promising heating solution for new, sustainable homes in the Netherlands, supporting national and EU climate goals.

Fatemeh Eftekhar

16 October 2025