Session: 02-01 Heat Pump and Building Waste Heat Utilization

Paper Number: 116952

116952 - Modelling and Experimental Performance Analysis of R410a Heat Pump Systems in Northeastern u.s Winter Climates 

This work is motivated by the accelerated pathways to decarbonize our cities.  This is the case of New York City which passed Local Law 97 to decarbonize the city by 2050.  A key component on these efforts is space heating of buildings, one of the major sources of carbon emissions due to the use of natural gas and oil for space heating. This challenge presents opportunities for large scale penetration of heat pump systems both air source and groundwater, with air source as the most deployable in existing buildings. Air source heat pumps are versatile as a single machine to be used as both heating and cooling system, and it could be expanded for domestic hot water source. However, the major drawback of air source heat pump systems is that the performance usually decreases significantly when the outdoor temperature becomes extremely low, as the case of high latitude cities. In this study, the performance of variable capacity of R410A heat pump systems will be investigated at different outdoor conditions in Northeastern U.S winter climates. The performance model will be developed, and validated with experiments using an outdoor simulator lab. The laboratory facilities have been designed and built to simulate the extreme outdoor winter conditions inside the laboratory where the heat pumps will be tested. LabVIEW has been implemented to design an interactive interface which is used for data logging, monitoring and control of the system. This study will provide insights into the challenges of air source heat pump systems in the northeastern U.S winter climates, setting the path for more advanced systems such as those of Transcritical Cycles to reduce further greenhouse gas leakages.

Presenting Author: S M Abdur Rob The City College of New York

Presenting Author Biography: S M Abdur Rob is currently doing his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at The City College of New York. His research areas are focused on Sustainable HVAC Technologies, Advanced Heat Transfer, Applied Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics. He obtained his MS in Manufacturing Engineering from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and BS in Industrial & Production Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology. He can be reached at abdurrob.buet@gmail.com.