Experimental investigation of effect of refrigerant gases, compressor lubricant and operating conditions on performance of a heat pump

In the field of heat pumps, there are a number of parameters that affect the performance and efficiency of the apparatus, which have been the subject of studies by individual researchers in the literature. This study describes an experimental method in order to investigate the effects of some significant parameters on heat pump performance. In this regard, a laboratory heat pump setup has been utilized to operate in different working conditions for achieving an appropriate estimation to find out effects of mentioned parameters such as refrigerant type and charge amount, compressor oil viscosity, compressor cooling fan, secondary fluids temperature and flow rate. Different refrigerants have been selected and used as circulating fluid in the installed heat pump. Although this work has been devoted to a detailed attempt to recognize the effects of various parameters on the coefficient of performance (COP) value, an appropriate method has been carried out to survey the obtained results by using economic analysis. It was revealed that one of the main parameters is refrigerant charge amount which has a notable effect on COP. The temperature of the heat source was also tested and the performance of the system increased by more than 11% by employing mentioned modifications and various operating conditions. In addition, by selecting a low viscosity compressor oil, the system performance increased by 18%. This improvement is more than 6% for the case that cooling fan is installed to cool the compressor element.