In order to explore the applicability of solar energy-asisted air source heat pump system in areas with different solar resource levels

TRNSYS software is applied to carry out systematical simulation

by taking regions with solar resource levels of Ⅰ～Ⅳ(Lhasa

Zhangjiakou

Hangzhou and Guiyang) as the research object. Six parameters including the rated power of heat pump

the tank volume

the rated power of electric auxiliary heating

the collector area

the collector azimuth and the tilt angle are selected as the optimization variables

and the life cycle cost of the system is selected as the optimization objective function. The particle swarm optimization(PSO)algorithm is applied to obtain the optimum equipment parameters

and economic and sensitivity analysis on the optimized system are executed. The research results suggest that

in Lhasa and Zhangjiakou

the optimal operation mode of the system is heat pump with heat collector

while in Hangzhou and Guiyang

the optimal operation mode of the system is heat pump with electric auxiliary heating. Moreover

the heat pump in Guiyang has the highest operating efficiency(2.94)

the system in Lhasa has the highest operating efficiency(2.26)

and the system in Hangzhou has the lowest cost per unit of heat(0.48 yuan/kW). The relative sensitivity analysis results show that the rated power of heat pump has a significant effect on the life cycle cost of the system in all regions. The conclusions can provide corresponding theoretical basis for optimal design of solar energy-asisted air source heat pump system.