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Solar Energy 80 (2006) 795803 www.elsevier.

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Performance of a multi-functional direct-expansion solar assisted heat pump system


Y.H. Kuang, R.Z. Wang
*
Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, PR China Received 21 October 2004; received in revised form 14 April 2005; accepted 1 June 2005 Available online 20 July 2005 Communicated by: Associate Editor Volker Wittwer

Abstract This paper reports on the long-term performance of a direct-expansion solar assisted heat pump (DX-SAHP) system for domestic use, which can oer space heating in winter, air conditioning in summer and hot water during the whole year. The system employs a bare at-plate collector array with a surface area of 10.5 m2, a variable speed compressor, a storage tank with a total volume of 1 m3 and radiant oor heating unit. The performance under dierent operation modes is presented and analyzed in detail. For space-heating-only mode, the daily-averaged heat pump COP varied from 2.6 to 3.3, while the system COP ranged from 2.1 to 2.7. For water-heating-only mode, the DX-SAHP system could supply 200 l or 1000 l hot water daily, with the nal temperature of about 50 C, under various weather conditions in Shanghai, China. For space-cooling-only mode, the compressor operates only at night to take advantage of a utilitys o-peak electrical rates by chilling water in the thermal storage tank for the daytime air-conditioning. It shows that, the multi-functional DX-SAHP system could guarantee a long-term operation under very dierent weather conditions and relatively low running cost for a whole year. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Solar assisted; Heat pump; Direct expansion; Water heater

1. Introduction Solar energy systems and heat pumps are two promising means of reducing the consumption of fossil energy resources (coal, petroleum, etc.), and hopefully, the cost of delivered energy for residential use. An intelligent extension is to use refrigerant-lled solar collectors to replace the standard air-source evaporator in a heat pump
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 21 629 33838; fax: +86 21 629 33250. E-mail address: rzwang@sjtu.edu.cn (R.Z. Wang).

system, which is called direct-expansion solar assisted heat pump (DX-SAHP) system. An advantage from the heat pump standpoint is that the collector/evaporator can operate at a temperature higher than ambient due to solar heating, which increases the heat pump COP. From a solar viewpoint, the working uid for the collector is a refrigerant, which undergoes a phase change at a relatively low temperature. This yields higher collector eciency than that of a straight solar system. Thus there are reasons for expecting higher performance for such systems than conventional airto-air heat pumps or conventional solar systems.

0038-092X/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.solener.2005.06.003

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Y.H. Kuang, R.Z. Wang / Solar Energy 80 (2006) 795803

Nomenclature COP f H coecient of performance frequency, Hz daily amount of solar irradiation on the plane of the collector, MJ m2 (or kWh m2) global solar ux density on the plane of the collector, W m2 heat rate, W temperature, K (or C) time, s power, W operating period of the system, min c comp eva f h HR i NHR o rad R st sys t w cooling compressor evaporator oor heating heating room inlet no heating room outlet radiator room storage tank system tilted surface water

G Q T t W s

Subscripts a ambience or air av averaged value

The concept of DX-SAHP was rst proposed by Sporn and Ambrose (1955) in West Virginia. Studies of refrigerant-lled collectors alone (Chaturvedi et al., 1982; Aziz et al., 1999) and the resulting heat pump performance with elevated evaporating temperatures (Morrison, 1994; Chaturvedi et al., 1998; Ito et al., 1999; Hawlader et al., 2001; Chyng et al., 2003; Kuang et al., 2003) have been done theoretically and experimentally. A review on such work has indicated that, the COP values of the DX-SAHP systems range from 2 to 9, and the collector eciencies vary between 40% and 98% (or even above 1) under very dierent climatic conditions. Although there are some DX-SAHP water heaters currently being marketed, the potential of such a technology is far from being realized. In some regions, airconditioning is the dominating energy consuming service in buildings, but there is lack of enough information about the application of DX-SAHP systems for air-conditioning of buildings. In the present study, a multi-functional domestic DX-SAHP system was designed and fabricated in Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. During the rst half year of 2004, a series of experimental studies were performed on such a multi-functional DX-SAHP system at dierent operating modes, which aimed to investigate the long-term thermal performance of the system and to analysis its component matching rules. The eects of various system parameters on the response of indoor air temperature of the building, water temperature variation in the heat storage tank, heating or cooling capacities and electrical power consumption of the system were investigated. A lot of experimental data and practical skills including component design, system matching, and operation control were obtained, which are

expected to contribute to further studies and applications of such systems in the future.

2. System description A multi-functional domestic DX-SAHP system is shown as Fig. 1. It mainly consists of a cost-eective simple at-plate collector array, a variable speed compressor, a water-to-refrigerant heat exchanger, a radiant oor heating sub-system, a thermal storage tank, a hot water tank with an immersed condensing coil, two fancoil units, a forced-air heat exchanger, a water circulating pump and piping. The solar at-plate collector array without any glazing or back insulation was used as a heat source as well as an evaporator for the refrigerant, R22. It consists 10 aluminum absorber plates with the total aperture area of 10.5 m2, which were connected in parallelseries form, as shown in Fig. 2. Each aluminum plate was made by a special process, in which the piping network design was laid between two sheets of aluminum (1 mm thick) and retained after the sheets was bonded by rolling them together, and then the tubes were formed by overpressurizing the network, with an inside diameter of 8.0 mm and a pitch between tubes of 40 mm. The collectors could be integrated into the structure of a house roof or wall so as to accord with the architecture and to reduce total initial cost. The solar collector array was mounted on the south-facing slope roof of a solar energy laboratory with a oor area of 38.5 m2. A rotary-type hermetic compressor with a rated input power of 3 HP (abbr. horsepower) (50 Hz) was used in the system, with the compressor volumetric displacement

Y.H. Kuang, R.Z. Wang / Solar Energy 80 (2006) 795803


8 7 20 3 RV
EV1 EV2

797
thermometer pressure gauge flowmeter

electromagnetic valve ball valve check valve PC

19 9
EV5 EV3

4 13 2
EV4

15

16

EV6

14

17 12 11 10

18
Space-heating-only mode Water-heating-only mode Space-cooling-only mode

1-solar collector/evaporator, 2-air source heat exchanger, 3-reversing valve, 4-accumulator, 5-compressor, 6-oil separator, 7-condensing coil, 8-hot water tank, 9-plate heat exchanger, 10-receiver, 11-filter-drier, 12-sight glass, 13-thermostatic expansion valve, 14-electronic expansion valve, 15-filter, 16-water pump, 17-floor heating circuit, 18-fan coil, 19-heat storage tank, 20-transducer

Fig. 1. Schematic overview of the DX-SAHP system.

Fig. 2. Front view of the solar collector array.

of 47 cm3. The compressor speed variation was achieved through a variable frequency drive (VFD), to avoid the mismatch between the variable load on the system and the constant capacity of the compressor. In the present set-up, a VFD capable of adjusting the frequency from 30 to 90 Hz was employed. A refrigerant receiver and accumulator were included in the system to help in controlling the refrigerant distribution, while the thermal expansion valve with an external pressure equalizer regulates refrigerant ow to the evaporators, in order to maintain constant superheat at the compressor inlet. The heat pump has two condensers, one of which is made of a copper tube coil and immersed in a 200 l

hot water tank, and the other is a water-to-refrigerant plate heat exchanger. A forced-air heat exchanger was coupled to the solar collectors as a backup evaporator during times of nun or low solar insolation. The energy rejected by the plate condenser contributed to spaceheating load requirements through a radiant oor heating unit in winter, whereas two fan-coil units were installed parallel to carry the cooling load of the building in summer. The storage tank is made of sheet iron with a capacity of 1.0 m3, and was linked to the plate heat exchanger and the oor heating tubing in a closed loop. A detailed overview of the heat pump system is shown in Fig. 3.

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Y.H. Kuang, R.Z. Wang / Solar Energy 80 (2006) 795803

Fig. 3. Overview of the major components of the system.

3. Data acquisition and processing system The pressures, temperatures and ow rate of working uid (water) were measured at the locations shown in Fig. 1. Also, the ambient temperature, relative humidity and its velocity, the incident solar insolation, the collector surface temperature, indoor air and oor temperatures were measured. Pressures were measured with pressure gages. Temperatures were measured with copperconstantan thermocouples and platinum resistance thermometers (RTDs). A solar pyranometer was mounted on the roof to measure the instantaneous solar radiation. A turbine ow meter was used to measure the water ow rate. Two digital power meters were used to measure the power consumptions of the compressor and the whole system including compressor, fans, pumps and electrical valves, respectively. All above measuring processes were monitored and controlled by a personal computer-based data-acquisition system. The data was recorded at every 5 min interval in a data logger, which was later used for analysis.

are a four-way reversing valve, ve electromagnetic valves on the refrigerant pipes and an electromagnetic valve on the water pipe at the locations shown in Fig. 1. A control box was employed to control the operating modes of the system, which provided with digital outputs to take care of compressor frequency, onos of valves, fans and water pump. For about four months from February to June 2004, experiments were carried out for the three fundamental operating modes to investigate the long-term performance of the multi-functional DX-SAHP system in different seasons. The following parameters have been measured: electric power consumed by the compressor and the whole system including compressor, pump, fans and other electric power consuming elements; temperatures of both water and refrigerant at dierent locations of the two loops, the absorber plate, the water in thermal storage tank, indoor and outdoor air; ow rate of the water loop; insolation incident on the collector/evaporator; pressures of refrigerant at inlets and outlets of compressor, evaporator and condenser. All above parameters were scanned and recorded each 5 min in an automatic scan. 4.1. Space-heating-only mode

4. Experimental methods and procedure In general, the multi-functional DX-SAHP system can oer three fundamental operating modes, i.e. space-heating-only mode, water-heating-only mode and space-cooling-only mode, and if necessary, it can also produce domestic hot water at space-heating mode or space-cooling mode. The switching between those modes is by means of valve position and ono controls. There

This mode serves the cold season when heating of the room air is required. At this mode, the refrigerant-lled solar collector array on the roof serves as an evaporator, while the plate heat exchanger works as a condenser. The refrigerant vapor from the compressor enters the plate heat exchanger directly, without passing through

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the immersed condenser coil in the hot water tank. The radiant oor heating sub-system was used to dissipate the heat to the room air, and meanwhile fan-coil units do not operate at all. As a part of the control strategy, the heat pump operate only from 9:00 to 17:00, because at low radiation levels, the collector temperature is signicantly below the ambient temperature and the system COP drops. From 17:00 to 22:00, the water circulation pump continues to operate and the water loop withdraws the heat from the thermal storage tank, which has been stored during the daytime. In the second half of the night, it is the stored heat of indoor oor that maintains the temperature level of the room air. At the space-heating-only mode, there is no hot water producing function, and the system COP at any time instant (t) is dened as COPh-sys t Qh t W t 1

4.3. Space-cooling-only mode In summer, the DX-SAHP system can be switched to the space-cooling-only mode. By reverting the refrigerant ow direction at the four-way valve, the refrigerant-lled solar collector works as a condenser or radiator, which rejects the condensing heat to the surrounding by night radiation cooling. The waterto-refrigerant plate heat exchanger produces the cooling water by working as an evaporator. The fan-coil units are used to cool the indoor air. The compressor operates only from 22:00 pm to 6:00 am, when the local power companies oer an o-peak electric rate that is nearly 50% of the standard electric rate in Shanghai. During the daytime, the water loop withdraws the chilled water from the thermal storage tank for air-conditioning, under the operation of water circulation pump. At the space-cooling mode, the COP is dened as COPc-sys t and Qc t W t 5

where Qh(t) is the heat exchange rate in the plate condenser, and W(t) is the system input power. If W(t) is dened as the compressor power input, the rate from Eq. (1) is called heat pump COP. Within an operating period of duration s, the average COPh-sys is dened as Rs Q t dt COPh-sys;av R0s h 2 W t dt 0 4.2. Water-heating-only mode This mode is used for hot water production only. At this mode, the four-way valve is positioned as before and the refrigerant-lled solar collector also serves as an evaporator. The immersed condenser coil dissipates heat to the bath (tank) of water. The water-to-refrigerant plate heat exchanger and the water loop are not included in this operation through bypassing the refrigerant ow, and meanwhile the water pump on the loop is power-o. The compressor is shut down once the water temperature in the tank exceeds the load temperature (50 C). When the DX-SAHP system continues to operate, the working temperature of the water-bath condenser rises and the system eciency declines accordingly. At this mode, the system COP varies sensitively with the change in water bath temperature. The COP for water-heating mode is dened as COPw-sys t and Qw t W t 3

Rs Q t dt COPc-sys;av R0s c W t dt 0

where Qc(t) is the heat exchanger rate in the plate evaporator.

5. Experimental results and analysis 5.1. Space-heating-only mode The DX-SAHP system was tested under various weather conditions at space-heating mode from 13 to 17 February 2004, with the daily-averaged outdoor air temperatures (Ta,av) ranging from 7.9 to 12.1 C and the insolation incident on the collector varying from 10.4 to 42.8 kWh/day. The experimental data listed in Table 1, which reveal that the daily-averaged indoor air temperatures (Ta-HR,av) varied from 16.7 to 19.1 C, and the values of heat pump COP (COPh-hp,av) and system COP (COPh-sys,av) were 2.63.3 and 2.12.7, respectively. In order to investigate the space-heating capability of the DX-SAHP system evidently, temperatures of indoor air and oor in an adjoining room had also been tested and recorded during the testing period, which has a oor area of 18.5 m2 without any heating equipment. In the present study, the data from a typical sunny day in winter has been chosen for analysis. Fig. 4 shows the variations of the meteorological data (Ta, Gt), indoor air and oor temperatures (Ta-HR, Ta-NHR, Tf-HR, Tf-NHR) in both the heating room (HR) and the non-heating room (NHR) with time of day on February 10, 2004. It is seen that, in the non-heating room, Ta-NHR and Tf-NHR were always below 15 C

Rs Q t dt COPw-sys;av R0s w W t dt 0

where Qw(t) is the heat exchanger rate at the water storage tank.

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Y.H. Kuang, R.Z. Wang / Solar Energy 80 (2006) 795803

Table 1 Performance of DX-SAHP at space-heating-only mode in winter Weather pattern Clear day (04-02-13) Clear day (04-02-14) Clear day (04-02-15) Clear day (04-02-16) Cloudy (04-02-17) Ht (kWh m2) 3.25 3.58 4.08 3.86 1.00 Ta,av (C) 12.1 7.9 9.0 11.4 10.1 fcomp (Hz) 40 50 60 Variable speed 50 Ta-NHR,av (C) 13.2 13.1 13.0 13.6 13.3 Ta-HR,av (C) 17.7 16.7 17.8 19.1 17.7 Qh,av (kW) 5.8 6.2 7.6 6.6 6.0 COPh-hp,av 3.0 2.7 2.8 3.3 2.6 COPh-sys,av 2.3 2.2 2.5 2.7 2.1

30

25

Tf-HR , Ta-NHR, Ta ,

Ta-HR 800 Tf-NHR Gt


600

10

Temperature,C

Feb. 14, 2004 space-heating-only mode fcomp = 50 Hz

Qh W comp 5 COPh-hp
4

Solar radiation, W/m

20 400 15 200

Power, kW

6 3 4 2 2 1 0 10:05 11:15 12:25 13:35 14:45 15:55

COP

10

Feb. 14, 2004 space-heating-only mode


0 11:30 14:00 16:30 19:00 21:30 0:00 2:30 5:00 7:30

Time, hh:mm

Fig. 4. Comparisons between indoor oor and air temperatures of heating room (HR) and those of non-heating room (NHR) under the same climatic conditions.

Time, hh:mm

Fig. 5. Variations of heating power, compressor power input and heat pump COP with time of day.

during the whole day, with a very little uctuation. In the heating room, the oor and air got heated up with the increase in solar radiation in the morning. Later, as the solar radiation decreased after the noon, Ta-HR and Ta-NHR reached their peak values respectively at around 17:00 pm. After the compressor switched o, Ta-HR and Ta-NHR began to decrease till the heat pump system restarted in the next morning. It is interesting to note that, the variation trends of Gt, Ta, Tf-HR and Ta-HR are similar, but their peak values appeared lingeringly one by one, which is due to the delay of heat transfer processes. Fig. 5 shows the variations of heating power (Qh), compressor power input (Wcomp) and heat pump eciency (COPh-hp) with time of day on February 10, 2004. At a given speed, the electrical power consumed by the compressor was stable, but Qh and COPh-hp increased rapidly initially after the system started to operate, and then decreased gradually until the system switched o. This is mainly because that, for a compressor of a given capacity, the COPh-hp mainly depends on the dierence in temperature between evaporating and condensing processes. With the rapid increase in solar radiation in the morning, leading to a rapid increase in evaporating temperature, a relatively smaller increase in oor temperature causes a reduction in compressor work and a higher COPh-hp. After the noon, the solar

radiation drops o, while the oor temperature keeps increasing, and hence, the Qh decreases continuously. In order to overcome the mismatch between the variable load on the collector and the constant capacity of the compressor in DX-SAHP systems, a variable speed compressor and an electronic expansion valve in the system is recommended to be included. Fig. 6 reveals the eect of compressor capacity modulation on the system performance. At the beginning, the compressor operating frequency was kept at 40 Hz, and it was raised to a higher level of 50 Hz after 11:00 am, and after 15:00 pm it was reduced to the lower level of 40 Hz again. This three-step capacity modulation enabled a relative stable and higher COPh-hp. 5.2. Water-heating-only mode The experimental data listed in Table 2 are taken at water-heating-only mode. In this case, the total volume of hot water is about 200 l, with the nal temperature chosen to be 50 C. It can be seen that, the daily operation time (s) is less 1 h on a typical sunny day in spring, and the DX-SAHP operated longer on a cloudy day, about 2 h. It is important to note that, the operation time s depends much on the compressor capacity. The larger compressor capacity enables a bigger mass ow

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10 6
40

801
1200

Feb. 16, 2004 space-heating-only mode


8

Qh W comp COPh-hp

June 30-31, 2004


5
32 1000 800 24 600 16 400 8

Solar irradiation, W / m 2

Power, kW

4 6

f: 40 Hz (9:00 -11:00) 50 Hz (11:00-15:00) 40 Hz (15:00-17:00)

3 2 1

Temperature,C

COPh

Ta Gt

200 0

0 10:20 11:40 13:00 14:20 15:40 17:00

1:28

3:58

6:28

8:58

11:28

13:58

Time, hh:mm

Time, hh:mm

Fig. 6. Eect of compressor capacity modulation on the system performance.

Fig. 7. Variations of solar radiation intensity and outdoor air temperature with time.

rate of refrigeration, which leads to a higher compressor work and a larger heating power, thereby resulting in a shorter s and a lower COPw-sys,av. As indicated in Table 2, for a xed compressor capacity, the system performance is governed strongly by the change of solar radiation and ambient air temperature. For example, the COPw-sys,av is much improved with the increase in solar radiation and ambient temperature. In order to maintain the COPw-sys,av in a reasonable range, it is suggested to keep the compressor working frequency below 45 Hz. 5.3. Space-cooling-only mode At the mode, refrigerant ow direction is reverted by the four-way valve, and the refrigerant-lled solar collector works as a condenser, which rejects heat to the night sky by radiation cooling. Meanwhile, the plate heat exchanger works as an evaporator to produce the chilled water for air-conditioning. Fig. 7 shows the typical meteorological data of June 3031, 2004, which had averaged outdoor temperature of 26.7 C during the operation period of the compressor (23:008:30). As shown in this gure, the temperature reached the maximum of 36.3 C at around solar noon. In Fig. 8, the outdoor temperature (Ta), indoor temperature (Ta-R) and water temperature in the energy storage tank (Tw-st) are plotted with time of day in the experiment study. To begin with, the compressor operTable 2 Performance of DX-SAHP at water-heating-only mode in spring Weather pattern Cloudy (04-04-10) Partly cloudy (04-04-19) Clear day (04-04-20) Clear day (04-04-21) Clear day (04-04-24) fcomp (Hz) 30 30 35 40 45 s (min) 120 60 45 35 50 Gt,av (W m2) 136 563 675 697 682 Ta,av (C) 15.0 27.9 32.7 31.0 19.6

35

A- Start cold thermal storage B- End cold thermal storage C- Start cold consumption A

Ta C Ta-R Tw-st

Temperature,C

28

21

14

June 30-31, 2004 space-cooling-only mode fcomp = 30Hz


1:28 3:58 6:28

8:58

11:28

13:58

Time, hh:mm

Fig. 8. Variations of outdoor air temperature, indoor air temperature and water temperature in the tank with time.

ated at a constant frequency of 30 Hz at about 23:00 pm, when the initial temperature in the tank was about 28.7 C (point A). At about 8:30 am, the compressor switched o and the water temperature in the energy storage tank reduced to 15.9 C (point B). Hence, the total net cold energy stored in the tank was only about 14.9 kWh during that period (point A to B), while the total cooling output of the DX-SAHP was about 49.5 kWh, which indicates that the system

Tw,i (C) 14.9 18.3 19.5 19.3 20.7

Tw,o (C) 48.3 47.8 46.1 45.0 48.1

Rs
0

Qw kWh

Rs
0

W comp kWh

COPw-sys,av 2.1 3.5 3.3 3.5 2.5

7.79 6.88 6.19 6.01 6.65

3.73 1.97 1.90 1.78 2.67

802
90 75

Y.H. Kuang, R.Z. Wang / Solar Energy 80 (2006) 795803

June 30-31, 2004 space-cooling-only mode fcomp = 30 Hz Trad,i

60 45 30 15

Trad,o Teva,o Teva,i

0 0:28 1:58 3:28 4:58 6:28 7:58

Time, hh:mm

Fig. 9. Variations of inlet/outlet refrigerant temperatures of radiator and evaporator with time.

has a poor cold storage eciency of about 30%. The COPc-hp,av was about 2.9 for this nighttime operation. This problem can be overcome by optimizing the structure of the whole system, shortening the length of piping between components, strengthening the insulation of energy storage tank and chilled water loop. It can also be seen that, at about 15:00 pm, the water temperature in the tank was above the indoor air temperature, which implies the cold energy stored during the nighttime was unable to meet the whole daily cooling load. Thus, it is necessary to employ a back-up condenser when the compressor has to work in daytime. Fig. 9 shows the variations of the inlet/outlet refrigerant temperatures of the radiator/condenser (Trad,i, Trad,o) and the inlet/outlet refrigerant temperatures of the water-source evaporator (Teva,i, Teva,o) with time as shown in the gure, during the most of operation time, the experimental values of Trad,i, Trad,o and Teva,i kept about 65 C, 28 C and 5 C respectively, while Teva,o decreased gradually as the operation time continued. It indicates that the bare collector/evaporator works well as a radiator/condenser at space-cooling mode, but its function is limited by the meteorological parameters, such as outdoor temperature, wind speed and cloud cover in the night sky. It is suggested to take some methods to enhance the heat transfer on the surface of the radiator.

ments for its design and manufacture. Moreover, it is needed to do further research on spectrum-selective coating for such a collector. In the DX-SAHP system, the energy storage tank is used to store hot water for space heating in winter, but it is also used to store chilled water for air-conditioning in summer. Both the volume and insulation of the energy storage tank will inuence the whole system performance signicantly. So the selection and design of the energy storage tank should consider synthetically the rst-loaded cost and annual operation cost of the whole DX-SAHP system. For the DX-SAHP system, the match between dierent components is critical for its good performance, especially the match between compressor capacity and solar collector area. It is recommended to apply certain proper strategies for system operation control. That is, inclusion of a variable speed compressor and an electronic expansion valve with a controller in the system would positively improve the annual system thermal performance of the DX-SAHP system. Although our objection is to conduct experiments to prove the prospective advantage of DX-SAHP system, only some primary results are presented in this paper, which shows the system performance was not so good as expected. It is because, at the time of writing, the system has not been operated in an automatic control means to adapt well to the large uctuation of solar radiation, which aected the system performance greatly. The experiments are still being carried out to fully realize the system match in various climate conditions. Several previous studies have employed chlorouorocarbons (CFCs) as the collector uid, such as R11, R114, R12 and R22. However, the discovery concerning harmful eects of CFCs on the stratospheric ozone layer has led to international agreements and legislative actions banning the future use of fully halogenated CFCs, while R22, a widely used hydrogenated CFC (HCFC) with an ODP of 0.055, is slated for phase out by the year 2040 in all countries. Thus several new refrigerants such as R134a, a non-azeotropic mixture of R22 and R142b, and a mixture of R123 and R134a have been proposed to substitute CFCs for the DX-SAHP applications (Aziz et al., 1999; Chyng et al., 2003). So it is very necessary to redesign the system components and recognize the inuence of such new refrigerants on system performance by theoretical and experimental methods in further studies.

6. Discussions A multi-functional domestic DX-SAHP system has been investigated experimentally in the present study. At space-heating or water-heating mode, the refrigerant-lled collector works as an evaporator, while at space-cooling mode, it works as a condenser. It is expected that the collector would have high heat gain/ rejection eciency, which may impose higher require7. Conclusions In the present study, a DX-SAHP system was designed and fabricated, which consists of a refrigerantlled collector array, a variable speed compressor and a radiant oor heating unit. It can oer multi-fold functions for residential uses, i.e. space heating in winter,

Temperature,C

Y.H. Kuang, R.Z. Wang / Solar Energy 80 (2006) 795803

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air-conditioning in summer and hot water supply in whole year. During the rst half year of 2004, a series of experimental studies were carried out on the DXSAHP system. Experimental results show that the system operating in space-heating-only mode can provide comfortable space heating in winter, with the daily-averaged heat pump COP varying from 2.6 to 3.3 and the system COP ranging from 2.1 to 2.7. For water-heating-only mode, the DX-SAHP system can supply 200 l hot water with the nal temperature of about 50 C daily under various weather conditions. For space-coolingonly mode, the compressor operates only at night to take advantage of a utilitys o-peak electrical rates by chilling water in the thermal storage tank for the daytime air-conditioning. It is important to note that, the multi-functional DX-SAHP system could guarantee a long-term operation under very dierent weather conditions and relatively low running cost during the whole year, but its advantages should be proved fully by much more experimental and theoretical studies in the future. Acknowledgements This work was supported by the National Key Fundamental Research Program under the contract no. G2000026309 and also Shanghai Commission of Science & Technology under the contract of 03dz12012. The authors thanks the helps from Prof. J.Y. Wu, senior engineer Mr. Y.X. Xu, and also Mr. Y.K. Sun.

References
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