2012 International Conference and Exposition on Electrical and Power Engineering (EPE 2012), 25-27 October, Iasi, Romania
Air Source Heat Pump a Key Role in the
Development of Smart Buildings in Future Energy
Systems
Low Cost and Flexible Experimental Setup for Air Source Heat Pumps
Vasile S. Craciun, Viorel Trifa
Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
vasile.craciun@edr.utcluj.ro; trifa@edr.utcluj.ro
Abstract – An important challenge for energy systems
today is reducing dependency on fossil fuels, while handling
increasing penetration levels of intermittent renewables such
as wind and solar power. The efficient consumption of
energy is a vital mater for a sustainable energy system. A
significant part of energy is used for space heating, space
cooling, and domestic hot water production which are
provided to residential and commercial buildings. Air source
heat pumps (ASHP) are widely used conversion technologies
all over the world for providing building thermal energy
services as: cooling, heating, and water heating. ASHP does
not have a constant temperature for the primary source like:
soil, ground water, or surface water heat pumps but still
have a majority in usage. As result, laboratory experiments
and tests are faced by the problem of having to handle a
wide range of conditions under which the evaporator is
operated. In order to cover various climate conditions, the
performance and behavior of the ASHP must be tested for
temperatures ranging from -30C to 40C and for various
humidity levels. This paper presents an experimental stand,
named controlled lab environment (CLE or climatic box),
for testing ASHP under controlled evaporator ambient
conditions. A main purpose of the CLE is to test and verify
the performance and behavior of a theoretical model of the
ASHP as a basis for optimization and efficiency
improvements. Design considerations and schematics of the
CLE are presented. Furthermore, a thermodynamic model
of an ASHP is presented and simulation results.
Keywords-air source heat pump; CO2; controlled lab
environment; flexible experimental stand; climatic box.
I. INTRODUCTION
The energy efficient consumption and successfully
increasing energy system flexibility on a large scale but
also on a small scale is a vital mater for all sustainable
energy systems. An overview of some grid impact
indicators that could be used to assess the impact of
intelligent, sustainable and smart building is presented in
[1]. An option for cost-effective integration, for residential
and commercial buildings, aiming thermal energy services
is the high-efficiency compression heat pumps with
thermal storages. Air source heat pumps (ASHP) are
widely used conversion technologies for providing
building thermal energy services; cooling, heating, and
water heating. Together with thermal storages technologies
and intelligent control systems, ASHP may be one of the
most cost-effective Smart Grid enabling options and may
978-1-4673-1172-4/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE
Carsten Bojesen, Søren J. Andreasen
Department 14 - Institute of Energy Technology
Aalborg University
Aalborg, Denmark
cbo@et.aau.dk; sja@et.aau.dk
come to play a key role in the development of Smart
Buildings in future energy systems. Heat pumps used for
space heating, cooling and sanitary hot water of residential
buildings are increasingly popular in Europe. As they
compete with other heating and cooling equipment’s and in
order to reduce the environmental impact of their use, it is
very important that heat pumps are energy efficient.
The heat pump’s Coefficient of Performance (COP) is
highly sensitive to operation conditions and temperature
levels of source and sink. Over time the authors have tried
various methods to optimize and improve performance of
ASHP and thermal storage’s as: different comparisons
between gas cooler [2], energy consumption modeling [3],
simultaneous cooling and heating of water [4], study of
frost accumulation effects on heat exchangers [5], review
on thermal energy storage with phase change [6]. The key
challenge for studying and optimizing ASHP was that it
does not have a constant temperature primary source like
soil, ground water, or surface water.
The experimental stand is composed by ASHP and the
CLE (controlled lab environment - climatic box). The
structure of the paper is: introduction, description of ASHP
and CLE, thermodynamic model for ASHP, experimental
results, and conclusion.
II. EXPERIMENTAL STAND- DESCRIPTION, MAIN
CHARCATERISTICS AND DATA ACQUISITION TOOLS
The experimental stand is composed by an ASHP and
the CLE (controlled lab environment - climatic box). The
main components of the ASHP and the CLE with the
evaporator posed inside are illustrated in Fig. 1 (sketch of
the main components of the experimental stand).
In Table 1 are presented the specifications of the
ASHP which is a Sanyo SHP-C 45 DEN heat pump [7]
consisting of a rotary two stage compressor without any
intercooling or internal heat exchange. The two
compression stages make it possible to achieve higher
isentropic and volumetric efficiencies, since the
compressor works at a lower pressure ratio in each stage.
Using two stages for the compression process also results
in smaller physical dimensions of the compressor
component which is favored in smaller systems
particularly used in households. The two stage scroll
compressor is using CO2 as refrigerant. Lorentz and
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Pettersen rediscovered CO2 (R-744) in 1993 as a working cooler, and control units, being located on the side of the
fluid for refrigeration. Compared to conventional CLE.
refrigerant such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) and
hydrocarbons (HC), CO2 (R-744) regarded as a more
environment friendly fluid since it is non-toxic, non- TABLE II. SPECIFICATION FOR CLE (CONTROLLED LAB
ENVIRONMENTAL OR CLIMATIC BOX)
flammable and neither contributes to ozone depletion nor
global warming. Due to its environment friendliness, low Components/Characteristics Units Values/Specifications
price, easy availability, non-flammability, non-toxicity, Desired range for operation C -30 to 40
compatibility with various common materials, Heating capacity able to
compactness due to high operating pressures, excellent kW 6
produce inside
transport properties made it one of the best working fluids Cooling capacity able to
kW 3.4
[8]. produce inside
Thermal resistance of the CLE K/W 8.13
Exterior dimensions m 1.7(L), 1.5(H), 1.22(W)
Interior dimensions m 0.98(L), 0.78(H), 0.5(W)
Construction material of the Wood boards, k=
-
CLE 0.17W/m2*K
Polyurethane, k=
Insulation type -
0.038W/m2*K
Electrical resistance (used to
kW 6
rise temp inside CLE)
Fans for circulating air inside CLE. Due to the small space inside the
CLE circulation of the air mechanically is needed (simulating the
movement of the air outdoor).

Figure1. Experimental stand layout. E: Evaporator. K: Compressor. GC:

Gas cooler. Ev: Expansion device. F: Fan. P-1 to P-4: Pipes connecting
main components

TABLE I. SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE ASHP, CHARACTERISTICS FOR

MAIN COMPONENTS

Components/Characteristics Units Values/Specifications

Refrigerant kg R744 (CO2) 0.86

Heating Capacity kW 4.5

Power source V ~230

Rated current A 20
Operation sound for the
dB 45
Compressor
Design pressure (high/low) MPa 14/8
Forced air-cooled type (plate
Heat exchanger (Evaporator) - and tube, with cooper tube
and aluminum fins)
DC Rotary-2 stage Figure 2. Picture illustrating the actual status of the ASHP experimental
Compressor -
compression setup; identifying the location of the main components of the ASHP,
Contact type (refrigerator to control components and data acquisition tools
Heat exchanger (Gas cooler) -
water)
Stepper motor
Expansion device - The data acquisition and control of the test setup is
expansion valve
handled by two National Instruments NI-DAQ 9172; one
fitted with a series of NI 9211 and NI 9213 thermocouple
The CLE is a custom hand-made, insulated square box modules, capable of measuring a total of 26 temperatures.
on wheels with a 0.4 m3 interior volume assigned for the The second NI-DAQ 9172 is equipped with a NI 9227
evaporator and other components (fans for air circulation, current input module able to measure 4-20mA signals and
electrical resistance totalizing 6kW for heating) which two NI 9227 modules for measuring analog voltage signals
provide the interior climate. The box is made from used for measuring pressures in and out of the compressor
construction wood boards of 2400x1200x3 mm using and flow for the water going into the gas cooler. All
special property outdoor lacquering and 300 mm measurements are acquired and logged using a Labview
polyurethane insulation material. Table 2 presents the virtual interface with two timed loops; one acting as the
specifications of the CLE. Fig. 2 pictures the actual lab main data acquisition and measurement loop and the other
setup identifying the location of the compressor, gas storing the data at a desired frequency in a text file.

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 III. THERMODINAMIC MODEL OF THE ASHP
The modified Lorentz cycle describes the where ηis is the isentropic efficiency of compressor and
transcritical CO2 heat pump cycle according to these ideal ηmechanical is mechanical efficiency of compressor.
thermodynamic processes:
B. Gas cooler model:
1-2s isentropic compression
2s-3 isobaric heat rejection (gliding temperature)
The gas cooler capacity is found by (7):
3-4s isenthalpic expansion
4s-1 isothermal heat absorption
Qgas _ cooler = m ⋅ (h2 − h3 ) (7)

A. Compressor model:
C. Evaporator model:
The compressor was considered as a single stage
The evaporator capacity is found by (8):
compressor; the inlet and outlet points have a single mass
flow. Please refer to the nomenclature for symbol
descriptions.
Qevaporator = m ⋅ (h1 − h4 ) (8)
The compressor power is found by (1):
D. Expansion device model:
PCompressor = m ⋅( h2 − h1 ) (1)
The expansion process is given by (9):
where m (kg/s) is the mass flow, same for inlet 1 and
outlet 2 of the rotary 2 stage scroll compressor; h1 (kJ/kg) h2 = h3 (9)
is the specific enthalpy for inlet 1and h2 is the specific
enthalpy for outlet 2. E. COP:
The theoretical volume flow is found by (2):
The COP is given by (10):
Vth = n ⋅Vdisplacement ⋅ 60 ⋅10−6 (2)
Qgas _ cooler
where n (rpm) is actual speed of compressor, Vdisplacement COP = (10)
(m3/h) is the displacement volume of the compressor, and Pcompressor
60x10-6 is used for unit conversion of displacement
volume from cm3 to m3/h. Different climate conditions are produced inside the
The volumetric and isentropic efficiencies are found CLE for the evaporator. The air at different temperatures
according to (3) and (4): may be considered as heat exchanger fluid for the
evaporator, while potable water from the local water
m⋅v network is the heat exchanger fluid for gas cooler.
ηvol =  1 (3)
Vth
h2 s − h1
ηis = (4) IV. RESULTS
h2 − h1 The ASHP model was analyzed using Engineering
where v1 (m3) is the specific volume of refrigerant at the Equation Solver (EES) and CoolPack (CP) software and
entrance to the compressor, Vth (m3) is the theoretical the results were compared. The key parameter assumptions
volume flow rate, h1, h2, h2s (kJ/kg) are specific enthalpy’s for the thermodynamic model are: ambient temperature is
for different points. from: -10°C to 10°C, water inlet temperature to the gas
cooler is 30°C, temperature difference over evaporator and
Taking heat and friction losses into account, the
ambient is 6C, temperature difference over gas cooler and
compressor’s mechanical efficiency is found by (5): water is 4C, isentropic efficiency of the compressor is
0.69, volume ratio 1st and 2nd stage compression is 1.55,
m ⋅ (h2 − h1 ) compressor exit pressure is 90 bar, and compressor heat
ηmechanical = (5) factor loss is 10%. The performance of the heat pump was
PCompressor simulated as steady state operation for individual ambient
temperatures.
where PCompressor (kW) is the compressor power. Fig. 3 illustrate an example of the steady state
The overall isentropic efficiency is given by (6): characteristics based on model and parameter assumptions
for an ambient temperature of -10°C, and Fig. 4 for an
m ⋅ (h2 s − h1 ) ambient temperature of 10°C.
ηis ,overall = = ηis ⋅η mechanical (6)
PCompressor

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Figure 3. Process cycle shown in logarithmic pressure-enthalpy diagram in CP for an ambient temperature of -10(°C) and water inlet temperature to the gas
cooler is 30(°C)

Figure 4. Process cycle shown in logarithmic pressure-enthalpy diagram in CP for an ambient temperature of 10(°C) and water inlet temperature to the gas
cooler is 30(°C)

987
 In Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 where chosen two temperatures, a models simulation is 0.14 and for the ambient temperature
low temperature -10°C and a positive temperature 10°C, as of 10°C the difference is 0.12.
ambient temperatures to have a better view on the ASHP
behavior. It can be seen that the ASHP has a good Fig. 7 shows the capacities of gas cooler and
performance for positive temperatures in case of heating evaporator as a function of inlet water temperature to the
and water heating so the performance for lower gas cooler at an ambient temperature of 10°C. It is found
temperatures is obviously lower and deserves more that the gas cooler’s capacity varies from 4.47 kW for an
attention for improvement. With the parameters from Fig. inlet temperature of 20°C down to 2.16 kW for an inlet
3 a COP of 2.14 was achieved, and with the parameters temperature of 40°C; the compressor having a constant
from Fig. 4 the COP achieved is 4.10, both in CP. power consumption of 1.13 [kW]. Similarly, the
evaporator’s capacity varies from 1.03 kW for an inlet
Fig. 5 shows the compressor work and COP as a temperature of 40°C up to 3.34 kW for an inlet
function of ambient temperatures. It is found that the COP temperature of 20°C.
varies from 1.89 at an ambient temperature of -18°C to
4.73 at an ambient temperature of 15°C.
4.5
Qgc
5 4 Qevap
COP
4.5 3.5
W comp

Qevap and Qgc [kW]

4
COP and Wcomp [kW]

3
3.5
2.5
3

2.5 2

2
1.5
1.5
1
1 20 24 28 32 36 40
Twin [°C]
0.5
-20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15
Tamb [°C] Figure 7. The capacities of the gas cooler (Q_gc) and evaporator
(Q_evap) at different temperatures of the water inlet to gas cooler;
T_amb=10(°C)
Figure 5. COP and the electrical power consumed by the compressor
(Wcomp) at different ambient temperatures varying from -18(°C) to 15(°C)
Fig. 8 shows the capacities of gas cooler and
The value of the COP according to the energy evaporator as a function of inlet water temperature to the
consumption made by the compressor which varies from gas cooler at an ambient temperature of -10°C. It is found
1.13 [kW] for a temperature of -10°C to 1.97 [kW] for a that the gas cooler’s capacity varies from 3 kW for an inlet
temperature of 10°C is illustrated in Fig. 6. temperature of 40°C up to 5.36 kW for an inlet
temperature of 20°C; the compressor having a constant
power consumption of 1.97 [kW]. Similarly, the
5 evaporator’s capacity varies from 1.08 kW for an inlet
temperature of 40°C up to 3.38 kW for an inlet
COP
4.5 temperature of 20°C.
4 These model results indicate that the ASHP is able to
provide significantly higher thermal output than rated. The
3.5 reason is likely that the model is too simplified by
modeling the compressor as a single stage compressor, and
COP

3 also does not yet take heat transfer losses into account. In
both, Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, the temperature of water into the
2.5 gas cooler varies from 20°C to a temperature of 40°C.
2

1.5
0.7 0.9 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 1.9 2.1 2.3 2.5
Wcomp [kW]

Figure 6. Value of COP according to the energy consumed by the

compressor

When comparing CP model with EES model results, it

is found that the difference between the COP’s results is
less than 0.14, for a difference of temperature of 20°C (-
10°C to 10°C), which is acceptable. For ambient
temperature of -10°C the difference between the two

988
 5.5
5
Qgc
Qevap
4.5
4
Qevap and Qgc [kW]
3.5
3
2.5
2 The financial support from Aalborg University,
1.5
1
20 24 28 32 36
Twin [°C]
Figure 8. The capacities of the gas cooler (Q_gc) and evaporator
(Q_evap) at different temperatures of the water inlet to gas cooler;
T_amb=-10(°C)
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
This paper has presented the ongoing development of
a experimental stand for testing ASHP under controlled lab
environment for evaporator, describing it, showing the
actual stage and presenting tools used for control and
acquisition. The main purpose of the CLE is to test and
verify the performance and behavior of a theoretical model
of the ASHP as a basis for optimization and efficiency
improvements. While experimental results are not yet
available the paper has presented the design considerations
and schematics of the CLE. Furthermore, a thermodynamic
model of an ASHP is developed in both Matlab and EES.
The model results served as a starting point for
theoretical and practical work with ASHP. For future work
the steady state model will be improved and validated with
the experimental setup, dynamic model development is
considered. For the experimental setup adding other
primary sources, like ground source are considered. The
presented experimental setup will be developed further to
include thermal storages that allow testing flexible
operational strategies supporting intermittent renewables
and connecting it into a Smart Grid.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was partially supported by the strategic grant
POSDRU/88/1.5/S/50783, Project ID50783 (2009), co-
financed by the European Social Fund – Investing in
People, within the Sectoral Operational Programme
Human Resources Development 2007 – 2013.
Denmark, Department of Energy Technology for the
construction of the experimental setup is gratefully
40
acknowledged.
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