The concept of solar-air dual source heat pump has been proposed to overcome the limitations of single source heat pump system. In this paper, a comparative investigation is presented among three types of solar-air dual source heat pump with different heat source configurations: solar-air series source heat pump (SA-SHP), solar-air parallel source heat pump (SA-PHP) and air-solar series source heat pump (AS-SHP). The impact of environmental parameters has been discussed, and the optimal working condition for each system has been identified. The results indicate that SA-SHP is suitable for working under the environment with low solar irradiation, AS-SHP shows the best performance under the condition with low ambient temperature and high solar irradiation, and SA-PHP can achieve the optimal state at high ambient temperature or high solar irradiation. The dynamic performance of SA-SHP, SA-PHP and AS-SHP in the daytime has been compared. The dynamic behavior of each system is significantly different. The COP of SA-PHP is the highest ranging from 4.50 to 4.58, followed by AS-SHP ranging from 439 to 4.50, and the COP of SA-SHP is the lowest ranging from 4.33 to 4.41. Moreover, the annual performance and economic feasibility for each system in different climatic regions are evaluated. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.