Performance Analysis of Heat Pump Water Heater Systems in Hot-humid Climates

Download or read book Performance Analysis of Heat Pump Water Heater Systems in Hot-humid Climates written by Obinna Uyanna and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The current overdependence on fossil fuel as the means of energy generation ensures that eventually, energy and utility costs will be extremely high since these fossil materials are depletive in nature. However, the research and development of energy efficient devices offers a viable solution to this situation. One such device is the heat pump water heater (HPWH), a device that utilizes a reverse refrigeration cycle to generate domestic hot water (DHW) for residential use. The performance of HPWHs in hot-humid climates was analyzed since such areas have high solar energy concentration, especially in the summer. Although electric resistance water heaters (ER WHs) are currently the main source of DHW generation, HPWHs are believed to be the more efficient water heating option. In this work, BEopt, which is a building energy-optimization software, was used to perform simulations of HPWHs and ERWHs in two selected hot-humid climates. With certain user-defined inputs, four simulation cases were generated and tests were run that showed the performance of these water heaters. The results showed that HPWHs were immensely more efficient, having efficiencies of 3.3 and 3.56 in the two test location while ERWHs had efficiencies of 0.88 and 0.9. The results also showed a significant amount of utility savings, reduced consumed energy as well as reduced CO, emissions when compared to ERWHs. It was also shown in the results that the units with HPWHs had significantly higher cooling energy values when compared to units with ERWHs thus leading to a better space cooling and comfort level for occupants of homes on hot-humid climates.