Long-term performance of solar-assisted heat pump water heater

A long-term reliability test of an integral-type solar-assisted heat pump water heater (ISAHP) was carried out. The prototype has been running continuously for more than 13,000 h with total running time >20,000 h during the past 5 yr. The measured energy consumption is 0.019 kWh/l of hot water at 57 oC that is much less than the backup electric energy consumption of the conventional solar water heater.