Advances in Heat Pump Systems: Key to Sustainable HVAC and Building Energy Efficiency
A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Energy, Physics, Environment, and Systems".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 15
Special Issue Editors
Interests: industrial installations; heat exchangers; heat pumps; energy saving technologies; renewable energy sources (solar and geothermal); thermal energy storage
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: heat exchangers; heat pumps; energy saving technologies; renewable energy sources (solar and geothermal); thermal energy storage
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
By adopting the EPBD directive and the Fit for 55 package, the EU legally requires a fundamental transformation of its building sector, targeting near-zero energy performance and renewable energy use in all new and old buildings, phasing out fossil fuel boilers, and making heat pumps (HPs) central to decarbonizing heating through electrification. To meet these goals, research is required to make residential HPs smarter, circular, and environmentally friendly; to reduce HP production costs and manufacturing and installation time; as well as to enhance their availability in district heating systems and other market sectors. Key challenges comprise, among others, the use of natural refrigerants, HP component modularity, and easy-to-install and plug-and-play HP components by using design, automation, optimized production, and assembly to reduce the complexities associated with HP manufacturing.
Under the auspices of the above, research topics of interest for publication in this Special Issue include the following (indicative):
- Innovative heat pump and component designs and advanced HP manufacturing: This Special Issue focuses on designing and developing complex and efficient components (e.g., heat exchangers) using additive manufacturing, leveraging cutting-edge technologies like 3D printing to create complex parts, integrating smart controls for optimized performance and overcoming material compatibility issues, and developing systems with low-GWP refrigerants and hybrid designs for better efficiency.
- Use of natural refrigerants: The latest revision of the EU F-gas Regulation in 2024 enables the use of lower Global Warming Potential (GWP) natural refrigerants such as CO2, ammonia, hydrocarbons, and water to improve HP environmental performance, requiring redesigned components and safety systems.
- HP and demand-side flexibility potential of buildings: Better design for integration with renewable sources, enabling buildings to maximize self-consumption and become net-zero. Shifting electricity use for heating/cooling, leveraging thermal mass and smart controls to reduce peak loads, integrating renewables, and stabilizing grids.
- Integration of HPs with energy storage solutions: This creates hybrid systems that boost efficiency, cut costs, and enable greater renewable energy use by storing excess heating or cooling, shifting demand to off-peak times, and smoothing operation, making HPs more competitive with fossil fuels.
- Techno-economic issues for HPs: HPs need techno-economic and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis, which involve evaluating the impacts from material extraction to disposal, revealing environmental trade-offs and guiding investment by comparing Levelized Costs of Energy (LCOE) with fossil fuels.
Dr. Maria Koukou
Prof. Dr. Michail Gr. Vrachopoulos
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- heat pumps
- natural refrigerants
- additive manufacturing
- smart control
- circularity
- demand-side flexibility
- energy storage
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