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Effect of Heat Pump Commissioning Faults on Annual Energy Use

Published

Author(s)

Piotr A. Domanski, Hugh Henderson, William V. Payne

Abstract

The study sought to develop an understanding of the impact of commissioning common faults the energy consumption of an air-to-air heat pump installed in a single-family house. Through annual simulations of the house/heat pump system, the study found that duct leakage, refrigerant undercharge, oversized heat pump with nominal ductwork, low indoor airflow due to undersized ductwork, and refrigerant overcharge have the most potential for causing significant performance degradation and increased annual energy consumption. Depending on the faults involved, the effects of simultaneous faults were found to be additive, little changed relative to the single-fault condition, or well-beyond additive. A significant increase in annual energy use can be caused by lowering the thermostat setting in the cooling mode to improve indoor comfort in cases of excessive indoor humidity levels due to installation faults.

Keywords

air conditioner, commissioning, fault detection, heat pump

Citation

Domanski, P. , Henderson, H. and Payne, W. (2010), Effect of Heat Pump Commissioning Faults on Annual Energy Use, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=922601 (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created January 24, 2010, Updated May 12, 2017