Performance characteristics of a heat pump using renewable transcritical CO2 refrigerant for heating water

Among non-toxic and inflammable working fluids, carbon dioxide (CO2) proving a possible choice of refrigerant is gaining full status because of its reducing capacity of global warming and ozone depletion. Heat pump (HP) equipment uses energy more rationally to heat water by reducing emissions and global warming caused by conventional refrigerants. HP capability demands an environmentally friendly refrigerant for their full utilization and high energy saving as well to attaining higher coefficient of performance (COP) without much design corrections. CO2 is checked for sustainability to eliminate the standardized refrigerants such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) and hydro-CFC. In this work, the performance of CO2 as an alternate refrigerant in HP for heating water at different pressure, flow rates, evaporator fan speed and preheating have been investigated. HP is accommodated with two condensers. The results showed that the increased mass flow rate had increased COP, overall heat transfer (HT) coefficient (U) and HT. However, logarithmic mean temperature difference was decreased for increasing evaporator’s fan speed and pressure. The outlet water temperature (TWO) of second condenser increased with decreasing water flow rate. Improved COP, HT and TWO of HP are observed from the experimental evaluation in case of preheating of water.