Energies 2017, 10(10), 1521; doi:10.3390/en10101521
Influence of Refrigerant Charge Amount and EEV Opening on the Performance of a Transcritical CO2 Heat Pump Water Heater
1
State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
2
Allfavor Circuits (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Shenzhen 518105, China
3
Xi’an Jiaotong University Suzhou Academy, Suzhou 215123, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 30 July 2017 / Revised: 20 September 2017 / Accepted: 26 September 2017 / Published: 3 October 2017
(This article belongs to the Section Energy Fundamentals and Conversion)
Abstract
Besides compressor rotary speed and parameters of water flowing through gas cooler and evaporator, refrigerant charge amount and electronic expansion valve (EEV) opening are two important parameters that have significant effects on the performance of a transcritical CO2 heat pump system. In this study, the effects of refrigerant charge amount on the performance of a transcritical CO2 heat pump water heater were investigated experimentally at different EEV openings. An optimal coefficient of performance (COP) was found that corresponded to a specific refrigerant charge and a specific EEV opening. Based on the experiment, the COP peaked at charge of 1.8 kg when EEV opening was 40% of full opening. The heating capacity and the COP increased at first, reached peaks and then decreased with increase of charge amount. The COP decreased 14.95% as the CO2 charge amount was reduced by 22.2% from the optimal charge at 50% EEV opening. As EEV opening varied from 40% to 60% at the same charge amount, the heating capacity decreased more than 30%. View Full-TextKeywords:
transcritical CO2 cycle; heat pump; COP; refrigerant charge amount; electronic expansion valve opening
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Zhang, Z.; Dong, X.; Ren, Z.; Lai, T.; Hou, Y. Influence of Refrigerant Charge Amount and EEV Opening on the Performance of a Transcritical CO2 Heat Pump Water Heater. Energies 2017, 10, 1521.
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