Heat Pump

Experiment
Theory of Machine and Thermodynamics
ENGD2005
Ibrahmim Abdalla
USAMA JAVED
P12202306

USAMA JAVED P12202306

Contents
1 Objectives.............................................................................................. 2
2 Background............................................................................................ 2
2.1 What is a heat pump?............................................................................2
2.2 How does it work...................................................................................3
2.5 Air Source Heat pumps (ASHP).......................................................4
2.52 Advantages of ASHP............................................................................ 4
2.53 Disadvantages of ASHP.......................................................................4
3 Apparatus................................................................................................. 6
4 Procedure............................................................................................... 7
Readings to be taken:..................................................................................7
5 Results.................................................................................................... 7
6 Calculations........................................................................................... 8
6.2 Graph calculations.................................................................................9
7 Discussion............................................................................................ 10
7.2 Implementation...................................................................................10
8 Conclusion............................................................................................ 10
9 References........................................................................................... 11

USAMA JAVED P12202306

1 Objectives
To determine the actual and ideal Coefficient of Performance (COP) for a
heat pump.
To investigate the variation in COP for different refrigeration flow rates
To undergo an experiment in the lab to calculate the result of COP and
compare to the actual ideal COP.

2 Background
2.1 What is a heat pump?
A heat pump is a machine working on the Carnot cycle which transfers
heat from a heat source to a heat sink using a vapour compression cycle.
A refrigerator uses a heat pump to move heat out of a fridge. An industrial
heat pump can be used to move heat from an external source into a
building. A heat pump can concentrate such "low grade heat" into higher
grade heat that can be used for space heating and domestic hot water.
Heat may be obtained from an air source, a
ground
source
of a
water
source.

(fig.1)
(fig.1)

(fig.2)

2.2 How does it work

A Heat pump allows the conversion of liquid temperature whether this be
from cold to hot or hot to cold. Heat pumps are used in many variety of
places however the most common operating modes are heating and
refrigerating. There isnt many differences between this two processes, a
basic heat pump cycle for a refrigerator is reversed and the heat is
converted from hot to cold. The heat pump uses work to move heat from
one place to another (1, 2015)

2.3 Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP)

A ground source heat pump extracts heat from the ground, whose
temperature will be warmer than air in winter and cooler than air in
summer. They are more efficient than air source heat pumps, especially in
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the coldest weather. They generate little noise and last many years with
minimal servicing.

2.31 Advantages of GSHP

Heat pumps are much cheaper to run than direct electric heating. They
are cheaper to run than oil boilers and can be cheaper than running gas
boilers, and also because heat pumps can be fully automated they
demand much less work than biomass boilers. Heat pumps save carbon
emissions since unlike burning oil, gas or biomass, a heat pump process
no carbon emissions on site. Heat pumps save space since there are no
fuel storage required. There is no combustion involved and no emission of
potentially dangerous gases. They require less maintenance than
combustion based heating systems. The planning authorities like ground
source systems as they are safe, silent, invisible heating systems with low
environmental impact.

2.32 Disadvantages of GSHP

GSHPs are more expensive to install than air source heat pumps because
of all the need to install a ground heat exchanger. However, this
connection to the ground is what enables GSHP to perform much more
efficiently than ASHP, particularly when the external air temperature is low
in winter . Problems arise with the ground source heat pumps if the
installation is poorly designed or not matched to the heating needs of the
building. The design and installation of an effective ground source system
depends on a thorough understanding of the movement of heat in the
ground, the local geology and the heating and cooling requirements of the
building. To get the potential benefit of a well designed system it is
required to heir an expert installer. This increases the cost of the
installation, but good design and planning will yield substantial benefits
over the life of the system. (2, 2015)

2.4 Coefficient of Performance (CoP)

The Coefficient of Performance is found by dividing the useful heat output
by the electrical energy input. A heat pump that transfers 4 kilowatts of
heat from the ground for 1 kilowatt of electricity has a CoP of 4.
There are two coefficient of performance for such a cycle, one for the
refrigeration effect and one for the heat pump.

COPhp=

Qout
Q
COP ref =
W
W

It follows that for the same system:

COPhp=COP ref + 1
COPhp=

h2 h3
h h
COPref = 1 3
h2 h1
h2h1

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Amount of heat measured:

Q=m cw Cpcw T

Efficiency:

Total output
100
Total input

2.5 Air Source Heat pumps (ASHP)

An Air Source Heat pump can be an efficient means of saving money and
carbon emissions if carefully designed for the space heating of an
appropriately designed building.
The first priority should be to ensure that the building is well insulated. All
new buildings should have high insulation built in and be well constructed
to minimise heat loss through air leaks.

2.51 CoP of ASHP

The key to the efficiency of an ASHP is the Coefficient of Performance. In
spite of the first law of thermodynamics, an ASHP in a good installation
can yield up to three units of heat for each unit of electricity consumed.
The heat pump is not creating this energy, but merely separating a
medium temperature from the external air into warmth which can be used
for heating and vice versa for cooling.

2.52 Advantages of ASHP

The main reason for using an ASHP rather than a Ground Source Heat
Pump (GSHP) is that they are cheaper and quicker to install, because you
save the cost of installing a "ground loop heat exchanger" in the ground.

2.53 Disadvantages of ASHP

An ASHP has no access to an interseasonal heat store in the ground
therefore it cannot take advantage from the fact that higher temperatures
are available from the ground in winter than from ambient air. It is
therefore less efficient in winter and suffers from a lower coefficient of
performance. It needs to spend energy on a fan system to blow air across
its heat exchangers, which generates noise. It also needs to incorporate a
defrost cycle to prevent ice forming on its heat exchangers in cold
conditions. (3, 2015)

2.6 Refrigerants
Refrigerants is usually a fluid substance commonly used in refrigeration.
During most cycles it converts from gas to liquid and then inverts back to
its original state. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used to be commonly used
but due to their high ozone damaging potential and also due to how it
contributes to ozone depletion the manufacture of such compounds has
been phased out under the Montreal Protocol. Ozone depletion can
increase the damaging health effects of solar radiation, which was a huge
environmental crisis which lead to CFCs being banned in international
conventions (4, 2015). The recent common refrigerants that is used in
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most applications are ammonia, sulphur dioxide, and non-halogenated
hydrocarbons such as propane.

Apparatus

1. Pressure Gauge
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USAMA JAVED P12202306

2. Thermometer
3. Air cooling fan
4. Water flow meter
5. Pressure reducing valve
6. Compressor
7. Condensing tank
8. Evaporating tank
9. Refrigerant flow meter
10.
Mains supply
11.
Watt hour meter
12.
Stop watch

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4 Procedure
Adjust cooling water flow rate 30kg/hr. approx. to both condenser
(red cylinder) and evaporator (blue cylinder)
Switch on compressor
Refrigerant expansion valve is adjusted to provide a condenser
pressure of 1000KN/m2 approx., when the compressor is operating.
Wait 30 minutes before taking readings for equilibrium settings to
be reached
Repeat for two further test settings by adjusting the refrigerant
expansion valve to give condenser pressures of 640kN/m 2 and
590kN/m2 which should give zero and vacuum gauge pressures
respectively at the evaporator.
At each setting the following readings should be taken:
Compressor Power: (time for one revolution should be measured)
Refrigerant Properties:
i.
Condenser pressure
ii.
Evaporator pressure
iii.
Evaporator inlet temperature
iv.
Evaporator outlet temperature
v.
Condenser inlet temperature
vi.
Condenser outlet temperature
Cooling water properties:
i.
Cooling water inlet temperature
ii.
Cooling water outlet temperature
iii.
Cooling mass flow rate

5 Results

Compressor power: time for 1 revolution: 53.13 seconds

Condenser pressure: 9 bar
Evaporator pressure: 1 bar
Evaporator inlet temperature: 16C
Evaporator outlet temperature: 14C
Condenser inlet temperature: 71C
Condenser outlet temperature: 28C
Cooling water inlet temperature: 24C
Cooling water outlet temperature: 36C

Cooling mass flow rate:

Specific heat of water: 4.18 kJ/kgK

48
kg /s
3600

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6 Calculations
6.1 Experimental calculation
Coefficient of performance

C . O. Ph p=

output
input

Output( the amount of heat into the condenser)

Q=m Cp T
Q=

][

T =3624=12 C

48 kg
kJ
4.19
12 K =0.6704 KW
3600 s
kgK

Input: (Electricity into the cycle)

2
166 rev=1 kw h
3
Rev
3600
1
=1
=21.60
s
166.67
21.60
E =
=0.407 kw
Therefore:
53.13
output Q 0.6704
C . O. P=
= =
=1.65
input E 0.407
C . O. Pref =C .O . P h p 1=0.65

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6.2
Graph calculations
h =370 kj/kg
1

h2=400 kj/kg
h3= h4 = 230 kj/kg
System performance:

Qout Q =W

Compressor:

W =m(h2h1)
W =4.18 ( 400370 ) =125.4 kw
Condenser:

Q out =m(h2h3 )

Qout =4.18 ( 400230 )=710.6 kw

Expansion:

h3=h4

230=230

Evaporator:

Q =m(h1h 4 ) Q =4.18 ( 370230 )=585.2 kw

Coefficient of performance for an ideal:

COPhp=

h2 h3
h2 h1

COPref =

h1 h3
h2 h1

h2 h3 170
=
=5.67
h2 h1 30
h h 140
COPref = 1 3 =
=4.67
h2 h1 30
COPhp=

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7 Discussion
Looking between the two COPs results between the experiment and the
plotted graph, there is a fairly big difference between the two results. On
the graph the COP is 5.67 whereas on the experiment the COP is 1.65.
There are many errors that could have caused the difference between the
two results.

7.1 Experimental errors

A major experimental errors includes human error, which in this case was
the stopping of the stop watch. This may have been done too early or too
late and each fraction of a second is vital to obtaining accurate results.
Another possible error that has occurred is parallax error, which occurs
when taking measurements with the human eye. In this case this would be
when taking readings of the temperatures on the thermometer as the eye
level has to be perfect to get an accurate reading. Another possible source
of error is the calibration of the pressure and temperatures on the heat
pump.

7.2 Implementation

Before starting the experiment make sure everything is adjusted

and calibrated efficiently.
Before starting the experiment make sure thermal equilibrium is
reached.
The thermometer readings should be taken from eye level to avoid
parallax errors.
Instead of having one person use a stop watch to time the
experiment, have 3 people time it and take an average of their
readings for more reliable results.

8 Conclusion

The experiment gave us a deep understanding of how a heat pump

works.
We can deduce that the Carnot cycle is possible in this experiment.
As the COP increases the cost also decreases.
The calculation of the two COP values are not the same due to
experimental errors
The experimental errors can be minimised by calibrating the heat
pump before proceeding with the experiment, also the results
should be recorded by a minimum of 3 people so that we can take
an average of the 3 for a more reliable result.

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9 References
1. (2015, 04 30). energysavingtrust. Retrieved from aur source heat
pumps: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/domestic/content/air-sourceheat-pumps
2. (2015, 05 01). ground source heat pumps. Retrieved from icax:
http://www.icax.co.uk/Disadvantages_Ground_Source_Heat_Pumps.html
3. (2015, 05 01). air source heat pumps. Retrieved from icax:
http://www.icax.co.uk/Air_Source_Heat_Pumps.html
4. (2015, 05 01). Refrigerant. Retrieved from businessdictionary.com:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/refrigerant.html
Air-source-heat-pumps. (2014, 11 14). (Energysavingtrust.org.uk)
Retrieved from http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/domestic/content/airsource-heat-pumps
fig.1. (2015, 04 30). what is a heat pump. Retrieved from
heatpumps.org.uk: http://www.heatpumps.org.uk/WhatIsAHeatPump.html
fig.2. (2015, 04 30). what is a heat pump. Retrieved from
heatpumps.org.uk: http://www.heatpumps.org.uk/WhatIsAHeatPump.html

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