A flexible heat pump cycle for heat recovery

Abstract

Heat pumps will play a key role in transitioning domestic heating to fossil-free sources. However, improvement in energy efficiency and cost reduction are still needed. Current vapour-compression heat pumps are built upon the Evans-Perkins cycle which was originally designed for refrigeration applications. Once hot liquid refrigerant has transferred energy to the central heating system, it leaves the condenser with sensible heat which can be utilized. Here we report a modified and flexible Evans-Perkins heat pump cycle integrating heat recovery and storage which is then used as an ancillary heat source for the heat pump’s operation. It operates in a quasi-two-stage mode to theoretically save up to 20% in compressor power consumption compared with single-stage cycles. We build a prototype with off-the-shelf parts and demonstrate a practical 3.7% power saving at a heat production temperature of 35 °C. Power saving will further increase with heat supply temperature. We also qualitatively show that hot refrigerant exiting the condenser can be directly used for defrosting the evaporator, providing additional energy saving.