Heat Pump With a Condenser Including Solid-Liquid Phase Change Material

Abstract : The growing usage of heat pumps increases the global electricity demand. During winter, the external temperature peak is at noon whereas electricity peak is at the end of the afternoon. Latent heat storage can be used to benefit from the time lag between these two periods. In this application phase change material (PCM) is integrated in the condenser of an air-to-air heat pump. The condensing temperature is used to melt down the PCM at noon. Then, during electricity peak load, the compressor is turned off and the indoor air of the house can be heated by exchanging heat with the melted PCM through the condenser. The condenser design is important to fulfill heating requirements since PCMs have in general low thermal conductivity. A dynamic model using Dymola is applied to size and simulate a prototype. Results show that a well sized heat exchanger can fulfill any heating requirements, however it is voluminous compared to an equal capacity regular condenser.