Conference Year
2021
Keywords
Domestic hot water, Transcritical system, energy recovery, waste energy
Abstract
Water-to-Water heat pump (WtWHP) is an efficient alternative to the current technologies used in Domestic Hot Water (DHW) production. However, this application is characterized by high secondary temperature lifts and irregular demands that define critically its design. In order to maximize the efficiency, transcritical cycles coupled to stratified storage tank has been the preferred solution. Nevertheless, recently subcritical cycles with a subcooling control system has been also considered also as a promising alternative because of the cost with the right desing the efficiencies could be in the range of transcritical system. The objective of this work is to compare the performance of both heat pump systems for DHW production in a heat recovery application where there is no restriction in the low temperature energy source availability. This situation could correspond to a source coming from sewage water or a system of low temperature district heating. The comparison has been made for the optimum configuration of both system which has implied the definition of the proper control strategy, proper sizing of the WtWHP and the tank and incorporation of a primary recovery heat exchanger in order to compare both systems in what is considered as the optimum working conditions. Results show that while both systems are able to operate with similar SCOPs, the CO2 system is more sensitive to water temperature lifts variations and temperature of the heat source than the propane WtWHP resulting in lower performances.