Experimental performance evaluation of water source heat pumps in different circumstances and comparison to air source heat pumps

Abstract

This study aims to present a novel experimental method for studying the performance of wa-ter source heat pumps which have not received sufficient attention, although this is particu-larly important for hot regions with great potential of hot water sources. The experimental model has special characteristics as it allows to investigate the performance of heat pumps under different operating conditions and allows a comparison between different types of heat pumps without the need to install a ground heat exchanger. The ground heat exchanger is known to be the most expensive part of any experimental model. In addition to that, it only allows to study the performance under specific conditions. The ground heat exchanger was replaced by a secondary heat pump that allows to provide an environment that simulates the different operating conditions of different types of heat pumps. It was found that water source heat pumps are more efficient than air source heat pumps with efficiency that increases with increasing water source temperature. It was found that increasing the water source tempera-ture from 5 to 20 oC, improved the rate of heat extracted from the water source by 11.3% and the coefficient of performance by 2.8% for each degree. Another important feature of water source heat pumps is the stability of the energy flow rates, which is a guarantee of higher sea-sonal performance coefficients. It can be concluded that hot regions with high potential of hot water sources has valuable opportunities to invest in the field of water source heat pumps with the consequent significant energy savings.