Improving the frosting and defrosting performance of air source heat pump units: review and outlook

Mengjie Song, Jiankai Dong, Chili Wu*, Yiqiang Jiang, Minglu Qu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

42 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

When air source heat pump (ASHP) units operate in heating mode at low temperatures in high humidity environments, frost forms and accumulates on the surface of its outdoor coils. This frost layer adversely degrades the operating efficiency of ASHP units rapidly, and can even result in sudden shutdown. Due to this operational problem, many researchers have conducted studies on frost-retardation measures. Since the frost that is present on the ASHP unit after shutdown has to be removed, defrosting becomes necessary. Among several reported defrosting methods, such as compressor shutdown defrosting, electric heating defrosting, hot water spray defrosting and hot gas bypass defrosting, the most popular method is reverse cycle defrosting. In addition, defrosting initiation and termination control play an important role in the frosting and defrosting cycle. Due to a scarcity of reviews of the literature on improving the frosting and defrosting performance of ASHP units, this paper provides a comprehensive review of experimental and modelling studies which explore this topic. This review can be used for guiding the future design and control strategy optimisation for ASHP units.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)88-98
Number of pages11
JournalTransactions Hong Kong Institution of Engineers
Volume24
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Apr 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Air source heat pump (ASHP)
  • control strategy
  • defrosting
  • frost retardation
  • multi-circuit outdoor coil

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