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Title: ThermoLift – A Natural Gas Fired Air Conditioner and Heat Pump

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1496210· OSTI ID:1496210

ThermoLift is developing TC-Cycle™, a natural-gas driven air conditioner and cold-climate heat pump that can provide space heating, water heating, and air conditioning in a single device. Unlike traditional heat-pump system, the TC-Cycle system uses helium as working fluid in place of high global warming potential HFC refrigerant. The system has broad application as a combined HVAC solution and technology development throughout this program has advanced the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) from TRL-1 to TRL-5 achieved in the Gen 3.0 prototype. In August of 2013, the US Department of Energy (DOE) provided Research and Development funding through the Building Technologies Innovations Program Funding Opportunity Announcement DE-FOA-0000823. The statement of work (SOW) outlined a deliverable of testing at ORNL and a final test report prepared to include various heating cooling temperature ranges and performance analysis. Furthermore, a milestone of this effort was to analyze all test data to establish further efficiency improvements and consider optimum manufacturing methodologies to facilitate the next level improvements. ThermoLift’s Gen 3.0 gas-fired heat pump was shipped and installed into ORNL’s test facility with most of the data reported herein obtained on August 6, 2018. Uninterrupted operation demonstrated cycle Coefficient of Performance (COP) well exceeding DOE targets for cold-climate heat pumps. Furthermore, there was no degradation in capacity as inlet (ambient) temperature decreased.

Research Organization:
ThermoLift, Inc., Stony Brook, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Energy Efficiency Office. Building Technologies Office
DOE Contract Number:
EE0006350; FOA‐0000823
OSTI ID:
1496210
Report Number(s):
DOE-THERMOLIFT-00006350
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English