RT Journal Article
T1 Research on the effect of the refrigerant charge in a variable capacity heat pump
A1 Ortega Veiga, Ignacio
A1 Sieres Atienza, Jaime
A1 Cerdeira Pérez, Fernando
A1 Álvarez da Costa, Estrella
A1 Santos Navarro, José Manuel
K1 3313 Tecnología E Ingeniería Mecánicas
AB Current energy efficiency regulations have led to the development of heat pumps equipped with variable speed compressors (VSC) and electronic expansion valves (EEV). To reduce the amount of refrigerant charge, heat pump manufacturers are developing units without a liquid receiver. As a result, the amount of refrigerant charge has a direct impact on the unit performance and needs to be optimized. Previous studies have shown the existence of an optimum refrigerant charge that maximizes the COP at a given operating condition. However, with VSC it is not clear if the optimum charge at a given compressor speed is the adequate one at other speed values. This paper analyzes the effects of the refrigerant charge amount on the performance of a brine-to-water heat pump equipped with a VSC and an EEV. For a given compressor speed, the variation of the COP with the charge showed similar trends and an optimum refrigerant charge could be identified. The charge for the maximum COP changes slightly with the compressor speed. The seasonal coefficient of performance (SCOP) is proposed as a better metric for evaluating the optimum charge. Results show that the SCOP is quite stable with the refrigerant charge
PB Science and Technology for the Built Environment
SN 23744731
YR 2024
FD 2024-03-05
LK http://hdl.handle.net/11093/7659
UL http://hdl.handle.net/11093/7659
LA eng
NO Science and Technology for the Built Environment, 30(6): 611-625 (2024)
NO Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. TED2021-129982B-I00
DS Investigo
RD 19-abr-2025