Heat exchanger design and system balance of an air source heat pump/chiller using brazed plate heat exchangers

Abstract

Air Source heat pump/chiller is used to provide chilled water for cooling and hot water for heating purposes. This is one investment for both applications with no requirement for boiler and fuel with the advantage of heat pump efficiency. In this paper we are going to analyse both air side and water side heat exchangers used in air source heat pump/chiller with special attention and emphasis on brazed plate heat exchanger which is used in refrigerant to water side of this unit in order to achieve optimum performance in both the heat pump and chiller operations. Due to compactness of brazed plate heat exchangers it is very important to balance system volume in both operating conditions which will also be examined in this paper.