Technological innovations in heat pump systems

Renato M. Lazzarin

International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies, 2007, vol. 2, issue 3, 262-288

Abstract: It is estimated that about 140 million heat pumps are working in the world. This evidences that the equipment conceived by Lord Kelvin back in 1852 has finally penetrated into the market. In the last 20 years the heat pump has improved both regarding the thermal exchange surfaces, the compressor, and the control and defrosting systems. Thus not only was the COP strongly improved but also seasonal performances. Further equipment improvements are aimed to better exploit the properties of new refrigerants, utilising even the pressure drop between condenser and evaporator, usually dissipated by throttling. Gas driven heat pumps were also improved with higher effi ciency i.c. motors and much longer maintenance intervals. Absorption heat pumps are now available in many different models suitable to different applications. Probably most improvements took place with lower heating temperatures and the use of cold sources more suitable than the outside air, above all surface and underground water, the ground and the recovery in mechanical ventilation systems. Copyright , Manchester University Press.

Date: 2007
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ijlct/2.3.262 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:ijlctc:v:2:y:2007:i:3:p:262-288

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies is currently edited by Saffa B. Riffat

More articles in International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies from Oxford University Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().