Testing of refrigerant mixtures in residential heat pumps. Final report
To contribute to finding the proper substitute for R-22, a test facility was designed and built to measure the steady state and cyclic performance of two air-to-air heat pumps of 2 & 3 refrigeration-ton (RT) capacity. The performance of heat pumps is evaluated based on ASHRAE Standard 116-1983 {open_quotes}Method of Testing for Seasonal Efficiency of Unitary Air-conditioners and Heat Pumps{close_quotes} (47). This standard includes six steady-state tests; three cooling tests (A, B, and C) and three heating tests (High Temperature (47S), Frost Accumulation (35F), and Low Temperature (17L)). The standard also includes two cyclic tests; a cyclic cooling test (D) and a cyclic heating test (47C). The results of these tests are used to evaluate the seasonal performance of a heat pump. In the work presented here, two heat pumps (test units) are used. Test unit 1 is a 2 RT split heat pump system using a reciprocating compressor, a short tube, and a thermostatic expansion valve. Test unit 2 is a 3 RT split heat pump system using a scroll compressor and two thermostatic expansion valves. This study investigates four different possibilities for replacing R-22 with R-32/125/134a (30/10/60 wt.%) (Mixture 1) or R-32/125/134a (23/25/52 wt.%) (Mixture 2). The first and simplest scenario is the retrofit with no hardware modifications. The second possibility investigated is altering the refrigerant path to attain a near-counterflow configuration in the indoor coil for the heating mode. The third and most complex possibility is the soft optimization which consists of maximizing the COPs of R-22 and Mixture 2 in the heating and cooling modes by optimizing refrigerant charge and expansion devices. The fourth option investigated is the suction-line heat exchange (SLHX). In unit 1, the first, second, and third scenarios are investigated and in unit 2, the first, second, and fourth scenarios are investigated.
- Research Organization:
- Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States). Customer Systems Div.; Maryland Univ., College Park, MD (United States). Center for Environmental Energy Engineering
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 233375
- Report Number(s):
- EPRI-TR-105394; TRN: 96:003119
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Aug 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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