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Title: Thermal storage studies for solar heating and cooling: applications using chemical heat pumps. Final report, September 15, 1979-April 15, 1980

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6465912· OSTI ID:6465912

TRNSYS-compatible subroutines for the simulation of chemical heat pumps have been written, and simulations (including heating, cooling, and domestic hot water) have been performed for Washington, DC and Ft. Worth, Texas. Direct weekly comparisons of the H/sub 2/SO/sub 4//H/sub 2/O and CaCl/sub 2//CH/sub 3/OH cycles have been carried out. Projected performance of the NH/sub 4/NO/sub 3//NH/sub 3/ cycle has also been investigated, and found to be essentially identical to H/sub 2/SO/sub 4//H/sub 2/O. In all cases simulated, the solar collector is a fixed evacuated tube system, which is necessary because chemical heat pumps operate at higher solar collector temperatures (> 100/sup 0/C) than conventional solar systems. With standard residential loads, the chemical heat pumps performed surprisingly well. In the Ft. Worth climate, less than 45 m/sup 2/ of collectors were required to meet over 90% of the heating and cooling loads. In Washington, DC, the area required to meet the cooling load was smaller (as little as 20 m/sup 2/, depending on window shading), but was sufficient to meet only 50 to 60% of the heating load. However, gas-fired backup via the heat pump was quite effective in reducing fossil fuel consumption: the thermal COPs in the heating mode were in the range 1.6 to 1.7. Since chemical heat pumps are designed to reject heat at relatively high temperatures, they were also effective in providing domestic hot water, supplying ca. 70% of the DHW in summer, ca. 50% in winter, and nearly 100% in spring and fall.

Research Organization:
EIC Labs., Inc., Newton, MA (USA)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-79CS30248
OSTI ID:
6465912
Report Number(s):
DOE/CS/30248-T1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English