Experimental analysis of the effect of humidity on the performance of a heat pump water heating system

Abstract

The objective of experimental analysis is the investigation of humidity effect on the performance of a heat pump water heating system composed of a vapor compression heat pump and a hot water storage tank. In this paper, system performance in terms of coefficient of performance, COP, is analyzed for various ambient conditions which are obtained with change of humidity and temperature in a climatic chamber. Different humidity and temperature values are used to simulate corresponding climatic conditions. It is obtained from the study that, humidity and temperature significantly affects the COP of the system. Especially for lower temperatures COP decreases dramatically due to frost on the evaporator. Performance analysis of the system is made by considering the both coefficient of the performance of the system and exergy loss of the system.