Open AccessImproving Water Loop Heat Pump Performance by Using Low Temperature Geothermal Fluid
Author(s) -
Xinguo Li
Publication year - 1995
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/895959
Subject(s) - heat pump , hybrid heat , water cooling , loop (graph theory) , geothermal energy , heating system , renewable heat , environmental science , nuclear engineering , cooling tower , heat recovery ventilation , coefficient of performance , air conditioning , geothermal gradient , water heating , thermodynamics , mechanical engineering , engineering , waste management , geology , physics , heat exchanger , mathematics , combinatorics , geophysics
Water-loop heat pump (WLHP) systems are an important option for space conditioning of commercial buildings. They provide the opportunity of saving energy through heat recovery and thermal balancing when heating and cooling occur simultaneously. WLHP systems typically operate with loop water temperature between 16 C and 32 C. When cooling loads dominate, loop water temperatures are maintained below 32 C by rejecting excess heat with a cooling tower. When heating dominates, loop water temperatures are maintained above 16 C by a heater input. The capacity and efficiency of water-source heat pumps (WSHP) in both operating modes are strong functions of the inlet water temperature. The emphasis of this paper is on the analysis of system performances, energy savings of the mixed cooling and heating mode of the WLHP systems for it is a unique operating mode in the air-conditioning and space heating systems. The energy saving effect by using low temperature geothermal as the heat input for WLHP systems was examined