EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF GAS-DRIVEN ABSORPTION HEAT PUMP FOR RESIDENTIAL HEATING

This work is a part of a larger project: “Evaluation of energy and environmental performance of a gas heating and micro-cogeneration system” founded by Gas.be, Belgian gas distribution company. The objective is to measure in the laboratory and in the field performance for seven different micro-CHP systems for heating and production of domestic hot water. One of them, subject of this work, is a gas-driven absorption heat pump, produced by Robur (Italy) recently released on the market. This machine represents the current state of the art for this technology applied in the residential field and was the result of the European project HEAT4U (2012-2016). In the project phase reported after an initial theoretical analysis of the machine and related thermodynamic cycle, the test bench has been defined and realized. A high number of instruments and sensors have been installed, calibrated and connect with an acquisition system for the collection of data through LABVIEW software. The tests carried out and the data reported in this work represent only the first part of the complete analysis of the machine. For that reason, the test campaign ideated is focused on a creation of a performance base-map to use as confronting for future variation of other parameters that can affect it, like a different type of modulation, the variation of load, use or not of storage etc. Beyond the simple analysis of efficiency coefficient attempts have been made to investigate the reason for its behaviour in relation to the heat exchangers occurred. After the completion of the base-map, but only for few conditions, the humidity has been changed try to research its role on the appliance’s performance