A Study of a Water-to-Water Heat Pump Using Flammable Refrigerants

Published

June 1, 1998

Author(s)

William V. Payne, Piotr A. Domanski, J Muller

Abstract

This investigation compared the performance of R22 to the performance of R290 and that of flammable zeotropic mixtures, R32/290 and R32/152a. The tests were conducted in a test apparatus specially designed to simulate a residential water-to-water heat pump. Brazed plate heat exchanges used as the evaporator and condenser allowed for counter-flow heat transfer between the refrigerant and indoor-loop and outdoor-loop heat-transfer fluids. The performance of the system was characterized by air-side capacity and Coefficient of Performance (COP) at different compressor speeds. Performance comparisons at a constant capacity were also provided. In the cooling mode at a constant capacity, the R32/290 (50/50) mixture produced the highest COP; 8 % higher than R22. In the heating mode, the COP of R290 was the highest; up to 8% higher than that of the remaining fluids. The cooling COP of R32/290 was 13 % lower and the heating COP of R290 was 1 % higher than the respective COPs of R22 in the reference water-to-air system.

Proceedings Title

'98 IIR-Gustav Lorentzen Conference Proceedings of Natural Working Fluids, IIF-IIR Sections B and E

Conference Dates

June 2-5, 1998

Conference Location

Oslo, 1, NO

Conference Title

Natural Working Fluids

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

brazed plate heat exchangers, entropic average, hydrocarbons, water-to-water heat pump, zeotropic

Citation

Payne, W. , Domanski, P. and Muller, J. (1998), A Study of a Water-to-Water Heat Pump Using Flammable Refrigerants, '98 IIR-Gustav Lorentzen Conference Proceedings of Natural Working Fluids, IIF-IIR Sections B and E, Oslo, 1, NO, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=860762 (Accessed October 11, 2025)