Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) accounts for half of the building energy consumption in the U.S where Mini-Split Heat Pumps (MSHPs) are an emerging type of HVAC system. Their utilization has greatly increased by 34% from 2009 to 2013 and high potential EER is recognized for MSHPs. However, there is limited research involving MSHPs systems, and there is no generic benchmark for system testing and modeling. The available simulation tools such as VapCyc, GreatLab, and CYCLE_D are either too complicated, difficult to access, or not freely available. Therefore, an accurate and public share generic benchmark is essential and will be researched for researchers and scientists.
In this study, the Heat Pump Design Model (HPDM) is utilized to investigate MSHP performance values. There are five different kinds of input parameters necessary for the HPDM, namely a general system description, system refrigerant-side balancing, compressor characteristics which need a compressor scaling method, fin-and-tube heat exchanger parameters, and system operating conditions. Based on systematic inputs of the HPDM, several key outputs can be obtained, including system capacity, power consumption, and mass flow rate. By comparing output values with existing data sets, the capability of a generic model for MSHP can be identified.
In order to validate the methodology analyzed above, two kinds of case studies will be presented. In the first study, a comparison of lab data and simulation results is presented, whereas in the second one, a comparison is conducted between manufacturing data and simulation results. By identifying all of the input parameters for the specified unit, which is the LG LA096HV in this study, the HPDM can obtain simulation results immediately. As indicated by simulation results, the HPDM can be a generic benchmark in a certain temperature range with a relative error below 5%.
Advisor: Haorong L
