Applied Thermal Engineering Vol. 17, No. 5, pp.

455-469, 1997
~ Pergamon © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd
All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain
PII: S1359-4311(96)00045-2 1359-4311/97 $17.oo + o.oo

S O L A R - A S S I S T E D R22 A N D R134a H E A T P U M P S Y S T E M S
FOR LOW-TEMPERATURE APPLICATIONS

H. Z. Abou-Ziyan, M. F. Ahmed, M. N. Metwally and H. M. Abd E1-Hameed

Department of Mechanical Power Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology,
Helwan University, Cairo, 11718, Egypt

(Received 13 August 1996)

AImtract--The results of the simulations for a conventional heat pump, a conventional solar air heater
and two serial solar-assisted heat pump (SAHP) systems are presented in this paper. The thermodynamic
properties of R22, R404a and R134a are given in the form of correlations with correlation factors higher
than 0.99. The performance characteristics of the heat pump are investigated using these working
refrigerants, for wide ranges of evaporator temperature (0-45°C), condenser temperature (50-70°C) and
air mass flow rates (1000-2000 kg/h). The comparison of the heat pump performance for the considered
working refrigerants proved that Rl34a is the most promised alternative to R22 for low-temperature
applications. This is confirmed by more than a 23% increase in the coefficient of performance for R134a
over R404a. The operating conditions and the performance of both the conventional solar air heater and
SAHP systems have been evaluated over 1 year using the meteorological data of Cairo (latitude of 30°N).
Comparison between the performance of the SAHP systems, conventional heat pump or conventional
solar air heater, shows that the SAHP systems provide better characteristics over the conventional systems.
The SAHP system in which heated air flows from the collector to the evaporator, then through the
condenser, is preferable. This system using R134a gives an increase of more than 50% in the coefficient
of performance of the heat pump and an average saving in the collector area of about 25% during high
radiation months (April-October) and 50% during low radiation months (November-March). Moreover,
the economic analysis demonstrates that this system grants the lowest annual total cost among the
considered systems. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords--Solar collector, heat pump, solar-assisted heat pump, alternative refrigerants.

NOMENCLATURE

A0...A 3 numerical constants in equation (16)

B0...B3 numerical constants in equation (17)
Co...Q numerical constants in equation (18)
Do...D2 numerical constants in equation (19)
Eo...E: numerical constants in equation (20)
Fo...F~ numerical constants in equation (21)
Go...G5 numerical constants in equation (22)
A surface area, m s
ACC annual capital cost, US$
C clearance percentage
CC correlation coefficient
COP coefficient of performance
cp specific heat at constant pressure, kJ/kg.K
CR compression ratio
Fo heat removal factor referenced to the term (To - T~mb)
FR heat removal factor referenced to the term (T~, - T,mb)
G solar radiation, kW/m:
h specific enthalpy, kJ/kg
i number of cylinders
I capital cost, US$
J annual interest rate
m mass flow rate, kg/s
M mass flow rate per unit area, kg/m%
n ratio of specific heats or years allowed for loan
N number o f revolutions per minute, rpm
P pressure, MPa
PR pressure range, MPa
Q rate of heat transfer, kW
S specific entropy, kJ/kg.K

455
456 H . Z . Abou-Ziyan et al.

t temperature,°C
tjep number of depreciation years
T temperature, K
TR temperature range, °C
U overall heat transfer coefficient, kW/m-'.K
v specific volume, m3/kg
V displacement volume, m ~
W work, kW
Greek letters
heat transfer effectiveness (Q~,/Q,.~x)
r/ efficiency
Subscripts
1-4 referred to I M A G E
a air
act actual
ac,i air inlet condenser
ac,o air outlet condenser
ae,i air inlet evaporator
ae,o air outlet evaporator
amb ambient air
c compressor
coil collector
con condenser
cond condensation
des desuperheating
e evaporator
f fan
in inlet
L losses
o outlet
u useful
r refrigerant
s saturated
sl saturation liquid
st stroke
sup super heating
sv saturation vapour
sys system
vol volumetric

INTRODUCTION

In view of the growing global energy needs and concern for environmental degradation, a clean
energy source, such as solar energy, is receiving greater attention for various applications using
different techniques. The SAHP principle is one of the most promising techniques as it boosts the
thermal load of solar heat collected at low temperatures. Thus, considerable interest has been
focused on SAHP systems [1-6], particularly when application temperatures lie between 40 and
70°C. Heat at these temperature levels is required for comfort heating, service water heating and
drying of perishable foodstuffs.
Solar-assisted heat pump systems can be classified according to heat sources as either parallel,
series or dual. In the parallel system, the heat pump receives energy from the ambient and the
collected solar energy is supplied directly to the considered application. In series combination, solar
energy is supplied to the evaporator of the heat pump, while in the dual system, the evaporator
is designed so that it can receive energy from either the ambient or from solar collectors or energy
stores. Among the above systems, a series SAHP has the highest coefficient of performance [7].
Therefore, this type of SAHP is considered in the present work.
RI2 and R22 have been popular candidates as working fluids for heat pumps [6]. R12 has been
phased out as a consequence of the Montreal Protocol in 1987. R22 will continue in use for some
time because of the Copenhagen Meeting held in 1992 [8, 9]. This leads to a need for immediate
and long-term searches for alternatives to existing working fluids for vapour-compression heat
pumps. Replacement of R12 by R134a for refrigeration has been widely accepted and this is in
commercial use. Thus, the present investigation evaluates the possibilities of using either R134a
or R404a as a working fluid to replace R22 for conventional heat pump and SAHP systems.
 Solar-assisted heat pump systems 457

Table 1. Physical properties of considered refrigerants

Refrigerant R22 R404a R 134a
Molar mass (kg/kmol) 86.48 97.6 102.03
Boiling point at I atm (~C) - 40.8 - 46.4 - 26.2
Freezing point (PC) - 160 - 118 - 101
Critical temperature ("C) 96.2 72.07 101.15
Critical pressure (abs) 4.99 3.732 4.064
Critical density (kg/m 3) 513 485 508
Latent heat of vaporization (kJ/kg) 234.7 208.9 215.5
Saturated vapour specific volume at 20°C 0.02604 0.01809 0.035

Thermophysical properties of these refrigerants are listed in Table 1. Moreover, the performance
characteristics of a conventional heat pump, solar air heater and series SAHP systems are compared
at various operating parameters.

S I M U L A T I O N OF T H E SYSTEM

Description of the system

Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of a solar collector linked to a heat pump. It consists of
a solar air heater, an evaporator, a compressor, a condenser, an expansion device, three-way valves
and an air damper. The three-way valves and the air damper are used to direct the air in the desired
direction. Two fluid circuits, namely refrigerant and air circuits, are existing for a SAHP or the
conventional heat pump system. The refrigerant circuit consists of the evaporator, compressor,
condenser and expansion device, whereas the air circuit comprises the solar air heater, evaporator,
condenser and load space.
The following assumptions are made for the thermal analysis:
1. Steady state operation of the system.
2. The pressure drops in heat exchangers, piping, etc. are neglected.
3. The heat losses between the system components and the surroundings are negligible.
4. The conditions of the refrigerant at the exit of the condenser and the evaporator are saturated.
5. Thermal effectiveness of both evaporator and condenser is 0.8.

Analysis procedure
Figure 2 shows the basis for estimating the performance of the main components in the
considered systems. The governing equations describing the system components are formed in the
following section.

C : Compressor ] TWV1 (Three way valve)

Ioo: ondon.r
Expansion Device

/ r - - 1
Load

/ IX FF" *i
~,~©~,'~'/~/7 Air Damper

:- =mbientr
To ambient From ambient To ambient
or coil or load

Fig. 1. S o l a r - a s s i s t e d h e a t p u m p system.
458 H . Z . Abou-Ziyan e t al.

solar radiation (G)

3 2S 2 .EkE
vvv

Plastic bag solar air collector

h

< TI >

Tae,i Evap.
IT4 T31 IT2
Ta¢, ° Tae i
Cond.
Tac o

Fig. 2. Basis for estimating the performance of main components.

Heat pump. The heat p u m p consists of a compressor, an evaporator, a condenser and an

expansion device. The governing equations that describe these c o m p o n e n t s are given herein. The
main p a r a m e t e r s of the c o m p r e s s o r are volumetric efficiency (qvo~), refrigerant mass flow rates (mr)
and compression power. These are presented as follows:
qvo, = 1 -- C [ ( P c o , / e e ) ~ : " - 11 = 1 - C [ ( C R ) L ' " - 1] (1)
m r = V~tNi(1/vOqvol (2)
W~ = m r ( h : - - h , ) . (3)
H e a t load and thermal effectiveness of the e v a p o r a t o r ( G ) are c o m p u t e d by
Qe = m r ( h . - - h4) = m a f P a ( T a e , i - Tae,o) (4)

Eo = ( T . 0 . , - ~o.o)/(T.o.,- T~). (S)

In the case of the condenser, the heat rejection takes place in two stages. First, desuperheating,
during which the refrigerant is cooled from discharge temperature to saturated temperature,
followed by condensation at constant temperature. Thus,
1. During the desuperheating stage,
Ed0,, = (T2 -- T~on)/(T_,- Tb) (6)
Qaes = mr(h: - h2~) = m , C p , ( T , c , o - Tb) . (7)

2. During the condensation stage,

Eoo°. = (Tu - T.c.3/(T~o. - T~o.,) (8)
Qco,d = mr(h2, - h3) = m , C p , ( T b -- Tac,i) . (9)

In the above equation, Tb is the air temperature corresponding to the end o f the desuperheating
stage. The p e r f o r m a n c e characteristics of the heat p u m p are compression ratio ( C R ) and coefficient
o f p e r f o r m a n c e (COP). These are
CR = P¢o,,/P~ (10)
COP = Q~o,/W~, (11)
where
Qco, = Qco,~ + Qdos.
 Solar-assisted heat pump systems 459

Solar air heater. Several designs of solar air heaters are available as described in the
literature [10-13].
Among these, a plastic bag solar air collector (PBSAC) is a simple, cheap and efficient one.
Therefore, a PBSAC with a polyester fibre porous absorber and a plastic cover (absorbitivity, ~,
of 0.9 and transmissivity, z, of 0.89) is considered in the present work. The efficiency of such solar
air collectors can be written as
qco, = Q,/(Aco,G), (12)
where the rate of useful heat transfer from the collector absorber to the air is given by equation
(13) when the collector withdraws air from the ambient:
Qu = maCpa(To -- T,mb) (13a)
or

Qu = Fo[r~G - UL(TO-- T,mb)], (13b)

where/70 is the modified heat removal factor based on the term (To - T,mb) given by Duffle and
Beckman [11] as
Fo = (FRAcoIO/{1 - [(Fg UL)/(MaCpa)]} • (14)
In the above equation, the heat removal factor (Fg) for a porous absorber of a solar air collector
can be estimated according to Bansal and Singh [12]:
FR = (MaCpa)/(M~Cpa + UL)- (15)

Computation procedure. The systems under consideration are simulated and a FORTRAN-77
program was written and developed to estimate the performance of the considered systems. The
input data for simulation are the meteorological climate data of Cairo [14], the evaporator and
condenser temperatures, specification of the compressor (V~t = 34.45 c m 3, N = 3000 rpm), air mass
flow rates and the thermal effectiveness of both evaporator and condenser. The program evaluates
the performance characteristics and the heat loads of the systems. Also, the state point data, such
as pressure, specific enthalpy, specific entropy, specific volume and the mass flow rate, are computed
by the program. The influences of the operating parameters on the system performance are
discussed in the next section.

R E S U L T S AND D I S C U S S I O N S

Using the system described in Fig. 1, heat can be supplied to the load by four different operating
modes. These modes are given below:
1. Mode 1. The conventional heat pump (the solar air heater is omitted).
2. Mode 2. Series SAHP in which heated air flows from the solar collector to the evaporator
then goes to the condenser.
3. Mode 3. Series SAHP in which heated air flows from the solar air heater to the evaporator
then goes to ambient. Air is circulated or bypassed between the condenser and the space load.
4. Mode 4. The conventional solar air heater (the heat pump is omitted).
In order to obtain the performance of the conventional heat pump or SAHP working with R22,
R404a or R134a as working fluids, knowledge of the thermodynamic properties is required. Such
properties are published in tabular form for R22 [15], R134a [16] and R404a [17]. Using these data,
a regression analysis has been carried out to correlate their thermodynamic properties from - 50°C
to near the critical point of each refrigerant. The following correlations are obtained:
ln(Ps) = Ao + A~T + A2T 2 + A3 T3 (16)
ln(Gv) = Bo + B~T + B2T 2 + B3T 3 (17)
hs~ = Co + C t T + C2T2 (18)
ATE 17/5
460 H.Z. Abou-Ziyan et al.

hsv = Do + DIT + D 2 T 2 (19)

S~v = Eo + Et/T + E2/T 2 (20)
n=2 n=5
h,up= Z F . ' T " + P ' Z F . ' T " - ' (21)
n=O n=3

n=2 n=5
Ssup = Z (Tnrn + e 2 GnTn-3 (22)
n=0 m=3

The numerical constants of the above correlations are given in Table 2.

The influence of various operating parameters on the performance characteristics of the
conventional heat pump, SAHP systems and the conventional solar air heater are presented in the
following sections.

The conventional heat pump (Mode 1)

The performance characteristics of the heat pump are obtained for the following data:
Working refrigerants are R22, R134a and R404a.
Evaporator temperatures between 0 and 45°C that accommodate a wide range of heat source
air temperatures, such as ambient air, solar air heaters, etc.

Table 2. Numerical coefficients for equations ( 1 6 ) - ( 2 2 )

Coefficient R 134a R404a R22

P Ao - 35.94481 - 18.64993 - 30.47938

A~ 0.265213 0.1003131 0.2246619
A2 - 0 . 6 7 8 2 3 9 9 x 10 - 3 - 0 . 1 2 3 9 2 8 3 x 10 - 3 - 0 . 5 6 6 1 8 4 x 10 - 3
A3 0 . 6 3 2 3 8 2 1 x 10 - 6 0 0 . 5 2 3 4 3 0 5 x 10 - 6
CC 0.9920 0.9999 0.99835
Percent of error 0.5332 1.64 0.5951
v,v B0 0 . 1 2 2 1 1 4 9 x 102 29.09704 28.70382
B~ - 0.7384953 x 10- ' - 0.2725075 - 0.2571637
B2 0 . 7 1 1 7 3 9 6 x 10 - 4 0 . 8 0 5 0 0 9 2 x 10 - 3 0 . 7 1 9 9 5 2 7 x 10 -3
B3 0 - 0 . 8 8 9 5 6 4 4 x 10 - 6 - 0 . 7 4 7 8 2 6 6 x 10 - 6
CC 0.99982 0.99858 0.99733
Percent o f error 2.48206 0.872415 0.68185
hsl Co - 6.702179 - 44.88042 19.76056
Ct 0.1675422 0.2586444 0.1260932
Cz 0 . 2 1 5 4 2 9 4 × 10--" 0 . 2 3 3 4 2 1 9 x 10--" 0 . 1 9 0 7 4 × 10 - 2
CC 0.99995 0.99995 0.9999
Percent of error 0.205 0.24 0.281
h~v Do 83.23572 7.468933 I 13.0569
D~ 1. 742258 2.155101 1.803855
D: -- 0 . 2 1 4 0 4 7 9 × 10 - 2 - 0 . 3 0 1 6 6 7 2 × 10 - 2 - 0.268273
CC 0.99891 0.9985 0.99624
Percent of error 0.19386 0.226 0.2272486
Ss~ E0 1.69001 1.394441 I. 1609
E~ - 27.95583 88.65609 202.9646
E2 10543.32 - 7009.401 - 11380.03
TR ( ° C ) - 50:80 - 50:58 - 50:80
CC 0.9867 0.97838 0.99783
Percent of error 0.184 0.2013467 0.206
hsup F0 155. 1313 - 171.7682 206.9959
F~ 0.8471667 2.771787 0.7536418
F2 0 . 2 0 9 1 3 9 x 10 -3 -0.281546 x 10 - 2 0 . 3 2 4 8 0 1 x 10 - s
F3 34.7401 235.5954 - 30.38014
F4 --0.3860322 -- 1.63803 0.2181878 x 10-
F5 0.672008 x l0 -~ 0.2648004 x l0 -2 0.6704004 × 10- 4
CC 0.99586 0.99767 0.99643
Percent o f error 0.28568 0,1579765 0.2058576
S,up Go I. 1 0 0 1 7 9 0.5393066 1.532719
Gt 0 . 2 9 7 2 2 4 x 10 -2 0 . 5 7 6 5 0 0 1 x 10 - z 0 . 1 0 4 8 5 6 x 10 - 2
(72 -- 0 . 1 6 6 9 7 9 x 10 - 5 -- 0 . 5 6 2 7 8 8 x 10 - S 0 . 2 4 2 1 9 9 2 x 10 - 6
G~ -- 1.479631 - 0.4013565 - 1.118764
G4 0 . 6 7 3 6 1 x 10 -5 0.1113335 x 10--' 0.5077712 x 10--'
Gs - - 0 . 7 9 8 3 8 x 10 - ~ - - 0 . 4 9 1 0 5 3 x 10 - 6 --0.604711 x 10-5
TR C C ) 30:90 25:65 25:90
PR 0. 6: 3 1.096:2.739 0.9097:3.662
CC 0.99034 0.99216 0.98673
Percent of error 0.2326187 0.0685059 0.1994485
 Solar-assisted heat p u m p systems 461

100 ~ 1 8
-- "q v o l ~"

\~, - 6
95 .m

t..
,-i
.~ r'-',A,L \ ~ / / A t__= 60 °C . wo, 1

, ~ " ~ S - \ ,,¢ 0 t . = 70 °(2 4

85 I J I I I I I I
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
E v a p o r a t i o n t e m p e r a t u r e (°C)
Fig. 3. Variation of volumetric efficiency and compression ratio with e v a p o r a t o r temperature for R134a.

Condenser temperature ranges from 50 to 70°C which cover various low-temperature heating
applications.
Effects of operating conditions on the conventional heat pump performance are discussed here
for R134a. The other two refrigerants, R22 and R404a, follow the same trend.
Effect o f evaporator temperature (%). The effect of T~on the performance of the heat pump while
the other operating parameters are kept constant is depicted in Figs 3 - 5. As T~ increases, the
evaporator pressure increases, thus the compression ratio decreases, as indicated in Fig. 3. The low
values of C R reduce the term ( C R ~/" - 1) of equation (1), which causes the volumetric efficiency
(~/voJ to increase with T~, as shown in Fig. 3.
For a given condenser temperature, ha prevails constant, h2 and v~ decrease, while h~ increases
as T~ increases. Thus, (hE -- h3) and (h2 - hJ decrease.

2.5 400
[] too.= 5 0 ° C Wc '
i 2.0- A tcon= 60 °C m, /~ L350
_ ~"
O too,= 70 °C ¢~-- 300 ~
1.5
25O

1.0 2OO
8
i 15o .-
0.5
I00 ~
0.0 ! I I I I I I I 50
0 5 l0 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Evaporation Temperature (°C)
Fig. 4. Variation of c o m p r e s s o r w o r k and mass flow rate with evaporator temperature for R134a.
462 H.Z. Abou-Ziyan et al.

_oo C
I~] tcoll~5 Qcoll
/~ tco.= 60 °C COP "'[-- 35 0
20- /L
~ to.= 70 °C / 30 °o
/
F
u 20
* 10- '~

r - 10 "~a
5- ~ -e'~ -

-
0 I I I I I I I I 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Evaporation temperature (°C)
Fig. 5. Variation of condenser load and coefficient of performance with evaporator temperature for
R134a.

The refrigerant mass flow rate increases with T~, as shown in Fig. 4. This is due to the increase
in volumetric efficiency and the decrease in v, as mentioned earlier. When the influence of
refrigerant mass flow rate is more pronounced than that of the (h2 - h0, Wc increases with T~ and
vice versa. This explains the behaviour of the compression work, as illustrated in Fig. 4.
Figure 5 shows the variation of the condenser heat load (Q~o°) and the coefficient of performance
(COP) against T~. It is observed that Qconincreases with T~. This is because of the large rate of the
increase in refrigerant mass flow rates that overwhelms the rate of decrease in the enthalpy
difference ( h 2 - h3) of equations (7) and (9). Due to the increase in Q .... the COP rises with T~.
Effect of condenser temperature (T,,,). At a particular T~, when T~onincreases, the condenser
pressure incredses, thus the CR goes up. This leads to a reduction in the volumetric efficiency as
T~o, increases. This trend of CR and r/volis illustrated in Fig. 3.
As the condenser temperature is increased, Vl and hi remain unchanged but h2 and h3 increase.
Thus, (hi - h3) decreases, while (h2 - h,) increases. Since, the increase in h3 is larger than that in
h2, (h2 - h3) decreases as T~oorises.
The effect of condenser temperature on the refrigerant mass flow rate is insignificant, as indicated
in Fig. 4. It is also shown in this Figure that the compressor work increases with T~on.This is
attributed to a large (h2 - h~) corresponding to a high Tco,.
Variations of the condenser heat load and the COP are shown in Fig. 5; Qco, decreases as T~o,
increases. This is due to the decrease in both (h2 - h3) and mr. Clearly, as T~onincreases the COP
decreases. The reduction in condenser heat load and the increase in W~ both contribute to the
decrease in COP.
Comparison between refrigerants. It is well known that the slope of the line representing the
relation between lnP and 1/T of a refrigerant is a function of its boiling point. The higher the boiling
point, the steeper the slope of the line. Thus, according to the boiling point data listed in Table 1,
R134a has the highest slope, followed by R22 and R404a. Consequently, R134a yields the highest
CR. However, the difference in CR between the considered refrigerants decreases as T~ increases.
This behaviour of CR is displayed in Fig. 6. This suggests that at high evaporator temperature,
as in a SAHP, R22 can be replaced by either R134a or R404a from the viewpoint of the
compression ratio. However, the operating pressure levels of R134a are lower than those of R404a
[refer to equation (16) and Table 2]. This makes a strong argument for R134a to replace R22 as
a working fluid for the SAHP.
It should be noted that no considerable variations in ~/vo~between the refrigerants are observed,
as shown in Fig. 6. Thus, according to equation (2), the mass flow rate of refrigerants is mainly
 Solar-assisted heat pump systems 463

100 8
_ _ ~vol ~h,,~ ~"
98 -- CR -- 7

--6
• Jr ~ - - ,m¢

- /,~ tcon= 60 °C rS

.~ 94 . ~ R22 - .~
"~ ~ /~ Ri34a _ ~a
1,~
92-- "
-- ~ [] R404a - - 3

90-- e

88 I i I I I I I l I
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Evaporation temperature (°C)
Fig. 6. Variation of volumetric efficiency and compression ratio with evaporator temperature.

dependent on their specific volumes. Since the specific volumes of R134a, R22 and R404a at an
evaporator temperature of 20°C are 0.035, 0.026 and 0.018 kg/m 3, respectively, as listed in Table 1,
R134a requires the lowest refrigerant mass flow rate, while R404a needs the highest amounts.
Moreover, the quantity ( h 2 - h~) is large for R404a followed by R22 and R134a. Thus, the
combined effects of both refrigerant mass flow rate and (h2 - h0 necessitate that R134a needs the
lowest W~, whereas R404a requires the highest W~ among the refrigerants, as illustrated in Fig. 7.
Variations of the condenser heat loads and COP with evaporator temperature are shown in
Fig. 8. Clearly high condenser heat loads can be achieved by R22, followed by R404a and R134a,
because the influence of (h2 - h3) is more pronounced than that of mr. It is also shown that R134a
yields a higher COP than R404a by more than 23% in the full range. These trends are a result
of the effect of the compressor work.

3.0 , 800
tcon= 60 °C
Wc / 2__ 700
_~ 2.5- R22 mr r_~ ~- ~,
/~ R134a ~ - - 600 ~1~
2.0-
[] R404a [] ./ - 5oo
0

~- 1.5- 400 ~
E
o -3oo
1.0-
o
- 20o ~
L.
= 0.5-
_ -- 100

0.0 I I I I I I I I 0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Evaporation temperature (°C)
Fig. 7. Variation of compressor work and mass flow rate with evaporator temperature.
464 H . Z . Abou-Ziyan et al.

,-, 2O 20
~k
-~ 18-- tcon = 60 *C Q,.. , ~
- - 18 0
L
16-- m2 cop
x_ 16
e,j
14-- 7
14
.~ 12--
T 12
O t_,
10--
I0
0
--8
6--
z ~6 ¢9
•~, 4--
k "
~ 2 --4 0

~ 0 I I I I I I I I 2
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Evaporation temperature (°C)
Fig. 8. Variation of condenser load and coefficient of performance with evaporator temperature.

The above discussion suggests that R 134a provides lower operating pressure levels, lower refriger-
ant mass flow rates, lower compression work and higher COP than R404a over the complete range of
operating conditions. Thus, R134a is recommended to replace R22 for low-temperature applications.

Solar-assisted heat pump systems (Modes 2 and 3)

The analysis of the conventional heat pump, in the preceding section, indicates that R404a
requires the highest refrigerant mass flow rates and W~ among the refrigerants investigated.
Therefore, this refrigerant is eliminated and R22 and R134a are considered in the analysis of SAHP
systems. The ranges of operating conditions for conventional heat pumps are used with air flow
rate ranging from 1000 to 2000 kg/h.
Figure 9 summarizes the variations of air temperature at the terminals of both the evaporator
and the condenser working with R134a for different air flow rates. The operating conditions of
Mode 2 or Mode 3 can be found from this Figure. For Mode 2, heated air flows from the solar
collector through the evaporator then through the condenser as stated before. This leads to the
fact that the inlet condenser air temperature should be equal to that at the evaporator outlet. Thus,
the intersection points I, II and III represent the operating conditions for this mode at air flow
rates of 1000, 1500 and 2000 kg/h, respectively. For Mode 3, since the air may be circulated or
bypassed between the condenser and the load, the air temperature at the condenser inlet is assumed
to be 35°C. At this temperature, a horizontal line can be plotted to get point IV, from which a
vertical line can be drawn to find out the terminal temperatures at both the evaporator and the
condenser for various air flow rates. Clearly, no intersection points occurred at air flow rates of
1500 or 2000 kg/h for the condenser inlet air temperature of 35°C. Thus Mode 3 is only limited
to air flow rates lower than these values. In contrast, Mode 2 can be used over a wide range of
air mass flow rates. It is important to note that a similar conclusion is reached for R22.

Conventional solar air heater (Mode 4)

Here, the solar air heater (Mode 4) is simulated over a wide range of operating parameters, such
as air mass flow rate ranging from 1000 to 2000 kg/h and outlet collector air temperature between
28 and 60°C. The results are obtained for the following monthly average solar radiation (on a tilted
surface of 30 °) and ambient temperatures of Cairo [14]:
Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
G (W/m 2) 422 433 585 660 597 715 622 617 557 528 457 395
t~mb (°C) 17.8 18.8 19.9 27.8 29.5 31.1 32.5 32.2 31.5 29.6 20.5 16.6
 Solar-assisted heat pump systems 465

60-
~-~ Outlet evap. temp.
50 j ~"
]'~ ~"~ ~-'~k~ ~. Inlet cond. temp.

40 . ..~xxiv "15]. ~
,o ....
e~ R134a ~//~"
t 6-o- ~br,." ,
20 e. = u . ~ , ma (Kg/n)

/ ~ ~ A 1000
10 f ~ , [] 1500
~ " I ~
I
2000
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
70-" I
I

. . . .

40 • ~ tcon34a= 60 Oc
30 ~(/~//~ ~ = o.s
/~ ma (kg/h)
20 ~ ~'~ A 1000

10 -~ ~ ~ " Outlet eond. temp. [ ] 1500

Inlet evap. temp. ~ 2000
0 I I I I I I I I
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Evaporation temperature ( °C )
Fig. 9. Operating conditions for SAHP systems.

The efficiency and the required area of the solar air collector, at the air mass flow rate of
1000 kg/h and load temperature of 60°C, are shown in Fig. 10 (Mode 4). The decrease in the
collector efficiency is clearly accompanied by a sharp increase in the collector area required to
achieve the desired load. This is typical behaviour during the months of low solar radiation. Thus,
the use of S A H P systems may be a useful way to design a conventional solar air heater based on
the summer conditions and the heat p u m p can compensate for the reduction in the system output
during the periods of low solar radiation. However, the use of SAHP (Mode 2 or Mode 3) is
beneficial whenever the outlet air temperature from the solar air heater is lower than that required
by the load.

Comparison between various modes

The different operating modes (Mode 1, Mode 2 and Mode 3) are compared, at the air mass
flow rate of 1000 kg/h and load temperature of 60°C, in Table 3. This Table reveals that the
conventional heat p u m p (Mode 1) performed poorly compared with the S A H P systems (Mode 2
466 H . Z . A b o u - Z i y a n et al.

140 t o 100
~ to= 60 C A,ott

120 1 m : = 1 0 0 0 k g / h -- --- q~o,,/ '80

1

/
0
r~
80

4o
~
-'~ ~

''40 "60

2o
e~

~J
t..
O

2o

0 , t , t 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Months
Fig. 10. V a r i a t i o n o f collector a r e a a n d efficiency t h r o u g h o u t the year.

or Mode 3). For SAHP operating with R22 or R134a, while W~ is almost the same for Mode 2
and Mode 3, Mode 2 is preferable based on Qcoo and COP. Since a lower outlet collector
temperature (T,o.~)leads to a low collector area and a high collector efficiency, Mode 3 stands out
when the criteria of collector efficiency and area are considered. Therefore, the COP of the SAHP
system should be considered in the comparison. Kaygusuz et al. [3] have defined the COP of a series
SAHP system (COPsys) as
COPs, = acon/(W~ + I4Q, (23)
where Wf is the fan power needed to pump the air through the air ducts and the solar collector.
For the same air ducts with the same flow rate, the pressure drop through the ducts of both Mode
2 and Mode 3 is nearly equal. Therefore, the pressure drop through the air ducts is excluded from
the comparison. However, only the pressure drops through the solar air collector are considered.
Manipulating the data of Bansal et al. [18] for the same type of collector, the pressure drop at
1000 kg/h is 12.3 N/m 2 per unit length of the collector. Thus, COPsysis computed for a fan efficiency
of 0.75.
Variations of COPsys for Mode 2 and Mode 3, operating with R22 or R134a, throughout the
year are illustrated in Fig. 11. The COP~ys of R 134a is higher than that of R22 in SAHP systems.
This is mainly due to the high compressor work required for R22. However, because of the high
condenser heat load, Mode 2 yields a higher COPsys than Mode 3.
A comparison between the conventional solar air collector (Mode 4) and Mode 2 is presented
in Fig. 12. It can be concluded that using Mode 2 with R134a yields an increase in r/coilby 4%
and savings in collector area of about 25 and 50% during the high solar radiation months

Table 3. Comparison between operating conditions of solar-assisted R22 and R134a heat pumps at 1000 kg/h and T~o,= 60°C.
Variable R22 R 134a
Mode 1 Mode 2 Mode 3 Mode 1 Mode 2 Mode 3
T~ 3.5 17 5 9.8 24 17.5
T: 89.9 75.94 82.195 65.23 63.4 64.2
T,,., 25 51.8 28.8 25 52.35 40
T~e.o 8.7 24 9 12 29.5 22
T,~.~ 36 24 35 41 29.5 35
T~,.o 58 58.2 58.8 57.1 55 56.5
Q~o. 6.3 9 6.5 4 7.5 6
IV,, 1.3 1.43 1.36 0.91 I 0.96
CR 4.3 3 4.14 4.4 2.57 3.14
COP 4.67 6.29 4.78 5 7.5 6.25
 Solar-assisted heat pump systems 467

10 ~ m ~ = 1000 k g / h R134a
9
t /_~
1~2
Mode 2
[-7 Mode 3

-- [~-- E]

I I I I I I I I I I

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 !1 12
Months
Fig. 11. Comparison of COP,, for SAHP systems.

(April-October) and the low solar radiation months (November-March), respectively. This
suggests that for SAHP the air duct arrangement in which heated air flows from the evaporator
then to the condenser is preferable to achieve high thermal performance characteristics.

Economic analysis of various modes

An economic analysis is carried out to compare the annual total cost of the conventional heat
pump (Mode 1), SAHP (Mode 2), the conventional solar air collector (Mode 4) and a conventional
electric heater. The analysis is conducted for a heating load of 10 kWh (at a load temperature of
60°C) for 8 working hours a day over 1 year. The reported results, in the previous sections,
indicated that this load may be provided by one system of the following: two units of the
conventional heat pumps described earlier (Mode 1); a solar air collector of 70 m 2 area (Mode 4);
or the SAHP that comprises a solar collector of 25 m 2 area with one unit of the same heat pump

,40
R134a Aco. 100

120 to= 60 °C m m _ rlco"lL-80

100 m:= 1000 kg/h /[
dx....~. ~ . . . ~ ~
-*

40 ~ ~Xx ~ Mode4

0 I , , I , , , , , , ' I 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Months
Fig. 12. Comparison of collector performance for Mode 2 and Mode 4.
468 H . Z. A b o u - Z i y a n et al.

Table 4. Comparison of the annual total cost in US$ for different systems
Item Systems
Conventional
Heat pump SAHP system Solar air collector electric heater
(Mode l) (Mode 2) (Mode 3) (Mode 4)
Capital cost 1500 2000 3500 300?
Annual capital cost 161.05 174.47" 375.79 20.00
Annual maintenance 75.00 62.50 70.00 --
Annual energy cost 478.31 182.90 82.50 2628.0
Annual total cost 714.36 419.37 528.29 2648.0
Cost of 1 kWh heating 0.024 0.014 0.018 0.091
Annual cost of SAHP system/annual cost of other systems 0.587 1 0.794 0.158
of other systems
*Heat pump will only operate during the low solar radiation months (November-April)
t C a s h payment for this system.

(Mode 2). R134a is used as a working fluid for all heat pump units. It should be noted that during
the high radiation months the heating load can be achieved using the 25 m 2 solar collector alone.
In other words, the heat pump of the SAHP system works for 6 months only and this may double
its depreciation time.
The capital costs of the above systems are based on local market price of US$750 for the heat
pump unit and US$50/m 2 for the solar air collector. A depreciation period of 15 years is considered
for the various systems [19]. The annual capital cost (ACC) is estimated according to the following
equation given by Mitchell [20]:
ACE = I(1 + j)"/tdop, (24)
where I is the capital cost; j is the annual interest rate of 10%; n is the allowed years for loan
(n = 5 years) and tdep is the number of depreciation years.
The running cost (energy + maintenance) is evaluated using an electricity rate of US$0.09/kWh
and an annual maintenance cost of 2 to 5% of the capital cost [21].
The annual total cost of the various systems is computed and listed in Table 4. Clearly, the SAHP
yields the lowest cost per kW heating among the considered systems. This is confirmed by a saving
of about 21 or 41% of the annual total cost when compared with the conventional solar air collector
or the conventional heat pump. It should be noted that the annual energy cost of the latter system
is higher than the annual total cost of the SAHP system. However, the electric heating is extremely
expensive when compared with any of the other systems.
Generally, both thermal performance and economic analysis proved that the SAHP system
(Mode 2) performs better than either the solar air collector (Mode 4) or the heat pump (Mode 1)
systems.

CONCLUSIONS

A computer program has been developed to simulate the performance of the conventional heat
pump, two serial solar-assisted heat pump systems and the conventional solar air heater. The
thermal analysis of the conventional heat pump working with R22, R134a or R404a indicated that
R 134a is better than R404a to replace R22 for low-temperature applications such as space heating,
drying process, etc. However, the comparison of the conventional heat pump, solar-assisted heat
pump (SAHP) systems and conventional solar air collector showed that:
1. The conventional heat pump or solar air heater performs poorly compared with a serial SAHP
system.
2. The SAHP system in which the air flows from the collector to the evaporator then to the
condenser (Mode 2) can be used over a wide range of air mass flow rates. In contrast, the SAHP
system in which the heated air flows from the solar collector to the evaporator then goes to ambient
(Mode 3) is limited to low air mass flow rates.
3. At low air mass flow rates, the C O P s y s of Mode 2 is higher than that of Mode 3 when either
R22 or R134a is used as a working fluid.
 Solar-assisted heat pump systems 469

4. T h e coefficient o f p e r f o r m a n c e o f the s y s t e m o f b o t h M o d e 2 a n d M o d e 3 f o r R 1 3 4 a is h i g h e r
t h a n R22.
5. U s i n g M o d e 2 o p e r a t i n g w i t h R 1 3 4 a i n c r e a s e s the C O P o f the h e a t p u m p a n d qcol~by 50 a n d
4 % , r e s p e c t i v e l y , a n d r e d u c e s the c o l l e c t o r a r e a by 25 a n d 5 0 % d u r i n g h i g h a n d l o w s o l a r r a d i a t i o n
periods, respectively.
T h i s d e m o n s t r a t e s t h a t t h e use o f R 1 3 4 a as a n a l t e r n a t i v e to R 2 2 f o r S A H P in w h i c h air first
e n t e r s the e v a p o r a t o r t h e n g o e s to t h e c o n d e n s e r is r e c o m m e n d e d to a c h i e v e b e t t e r p e r f o r m a n c e .
M o r e o v e r , the e c o n o m i c a n a l y s i s p r o v e s t h a t this S A H P is a c o s t - e f f e c t i v e system, as its a n n u a l
t o t a l c o s t is 0.587 a n d 0.794 r e l a t e d to t h a t o f t h e c o n v e n t i o n a l h e a t p u m p a n d the s o l a r air
collector, respectively.

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