An experimental study on a modified air conditioner with a domestic hot water supply (ACDHWS)

The recovery of condenser heat in air conditioners is attractive because of its great economy and environmental value. This work experimentally studies a modified air conditioner with a domestic hot water supply (ACDHWS) that operates in the space-cooling and water-heating mode. The working principles and the basic features of the ACDHWS are introduced in this paper. This is followed by an experimental study on dynamic operation characteristics, hot water supply performance, energy efficiency and the temperature distribution of hot water in the storage tank of the unit. The results show that the ACDHWS can reliably be used to heat domestic hot water without losing its cooling capacity when it is controlled well in different operation conditions. Comparatively, the coefficient of comprehensive energy performance (COP₂) of the ACDHWS is about 38.6% higher than that of the original unit. Furthermore, it is proved that the ACDHWS can continuously supply hot water for householders if a suitable hot water storage tank is installed. All these may be much helpful to develop a perfect ACDHWS product.     

A study of the potential of using the Earth to air heat exchanger for cooling and heating of residential buildings in Iraq

The Earth to air heat exchanger (EAHE) is an effective passive cooling and heating system for buildings. This paper studied numerically the potential for reduction in energy consumption for cooling and heating loads for a residence equipped with an EAHE system in the climate of Nasiriya city, which is located in southern Iraq and at 31.7°N and 45.8°E, latitude and longitude, respectively. Also, this paper presents a study about the thermal performance of three types of EAHE systems, system 1, consisting of one layer of EAHE and buried at an available area of house garden with 3‐m depth, system 2, at the same site of system 1, but with two layers of EAHE at two depths, 3 and 4 m, and finally, system 3, buried along the area of the house at a depth of 3 m. First, the built numerical model was validated against experimental results, and the results of the comparison showed good agreement. The electricity consumption for cooling and heating of the house is calculated with and without the EAHE system. The results showed that with using EAHE, there is a considerable saving in energy and saving in the cost of electricity consumption, which reached 376 329 IQD ($301.11) over 1 year for system 2.     

An experimental study on the heat recovery from the exhaust air of stenters with a packed bed column

Stenters are the dryers that are commonly used in textile finishing mills. The exhaust air of the stenters is of great potential of energy saving via heat recovery mainly using the latent heat of condensation of the water vapour involved. This study reveals the usage possibility of a packed bed column for the heat recovery from the exhaust air of the stenter. An experimental investigation was carried out with a laboratory‐scale counter flow packed bed column. Additionally, an exergetic evaluation of the system was performed. Water inlet temperature and relative humidity ratio of the exhaust air are the main factors that affect the water outlet temperatures and efficiency of the system. It was observed that a decrease in the water inlet temperature increases the recovered exergy; however, water outlet temperature is not significantly affected by the inlet temperature of the water. The exergy efficiency of the system increases with the increase in the relative humidity ratio of the exhaust air. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel household refrigerator with shape-stabilized PCM (Phase Change Material) heat storage condensers: An experimental investigation

In this study, a kind of shape-stabilized phase change material (PCM) was adopted for constructing heat storage condensers. And a novel household refrigerator equipped with the heat storage condensers was setup based on an ordinary double-door three-star compartment refrigerator. The experimental investigation on the characteristics of the novel refrigerator and an ordinary refrigerator was carried out under the ISO standard test conditions. For the novel refrigerator, part of the condensation heat was stored in the shape-stabilized PCM during the on-time and discharged to the environment while the compressor was off. Therefore, the heat dissipation of the novel refrigerator was continuous during a complete cycle (including a successive on-time and off-time period), different from the intermittent heat dissipation of the ordinary setup. Thus, the overall heat-transfer performances of the condensers could be significantly improved, which resulted in a lower condensation temperature, a higher evaporation temperature and a much larger subcooling degree at the condenser outlet. Compared to the ordinary refrigerator, the total cycle time and the ratio of on-time to the total cycle time of the novel refrigerator were much smaller, which led to more frequent starts of the compressor but lower energy consumption. Experiments demonstrated that the novel refrigerator could increase the energy efficiency by about 12% with only little increase of the cost.     

An assessment of the present and future opportunities for combined heat and power with district heating (CHP-DH) in the United Kingdom

As global fuel reserves are depleted, alternative and more efficient forms of energy generation and delivery will be required. Combined heat and power with district heating (CHP-DH) provides an alternative energy production and delivery mechanism that is less resource intensive, more efficient and provides greater energy security than many popular alternatives. It will be shown that the economic viability of CHP-DH networks depends on several principles, namely (1) the optimisation of engineering and design principles; (2) organisational and regulatory frameworks; (3) financial and economic factors. It was found that in the long term DH is competitive with other energy supply and distribution technologies such as electricity and gas. However, in the short to medium term it is shown that economic risk, regulatory uncertainty and lock-in of existing technology are the most significant barriers to CHP-DH development. This research suggests that under the present regulatory and economic paradigm, the infrastructure required for DH networks remains financially prohibitive; the implementation of government policies are complicated and impose high transaction costs, while engineering solutions are frequently not implemented or economically optimised. If CHP-DH is going to play any part in meeting climate change targets then collaboration between public and private organisations will be required. It is clear from this analysis that strong local government involvement is therefore necessary for the co-ordination, leadership and infrastructural deployment of CHP-DH.