Design and tuning of an easy-to-use application for sizing the heat pump of a single user residential unit

The objective of this work is to develop a tool for the feasibility assessment of the substitution between a traditional boiler and an air-to-water heat pump for the heating of residential buildings. The project has been commissioned by the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l'energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenibile - ENEA) as part of an effort to promote the use of sustainable and renewable energy, with particular emphasis on the domestic heating sector. After an initial introduction to the current evolution of national and international policies, an analysis of the state of the heating market is proposed. Then, the Italian building scenario is discussed and an excursus on all the available technologies for domestic heating is presented, before focusing on the working mechanism of the heat pump. The main part of the thesis is then presented, which discusses the construction of an algorithm that evaluates the possibility of replacing a conventional boiler with a heat pump, while at the same time satisfying the user's heating needs. Great care has been taken to ensure that the programme remains user-friendly, requesting information and inputs that are as simple as possible and easy to find, a characteristic that was considered crucial to ensure the tool's widespread use. In the final part of the thesis, two analyses are carried out, covering the whole Italian territory, and the results are duly analyzed.