Introduction

According to Wikipedia.org, a heat pump is a device that provides heat energy

from a source of heat to a destination called a heat sink. Heat pumps are
designed to move thermal energy opposite to the direction of spontaneous heat
flow by absorbing heat from a cold space and releasing it to a warmer one.

Figure 1.0: four phases in the thermodynamic cycle of the refrigerant fluid in a heat pump
In the compression phase of the fluid, in a gaseous state where pressure and temperature
increase, absorbing heat. In the next phase, it passes through a condenser and the heat is
released to the water or air used as carriers for heating the environments or the domestic hot
water. In the third phase, the fluid - now returned to a liquid state - passes through an expansion
valve (lamination process) which causes a drop in pressure and temperature. In the fourth and
final phase, which is evaporation, it goes into a vaporous state, absorbing energy from the heat
source.

Literature Review
A heat pump extracts heat from a reservoir with the temperature T1 through vaporisation of a
coolant and transfer this heat to a reservoir with the temperature T2 through condensation of the
coolant. As a result the temperature differential T = (T2-T1) between the two reservoirs
increases. A heat pump can be characterised by the efficiency which is greater than

one. At first glance this seems to contradict the law of conservation of

energy as the efficiency is the ratio of the quantity of heat Q2 which is
released by the heat pump to the reservoir with the temperature T2 to the applied electrical
energy W:

= Q2/ W

Q
2
W

: efficiency of heat pump

: heat released to the reservoir with T2
: applied electrical energy to run the process

One of the aim of this experiment is to determine the efficiency of the heat pump as
function of the temperature differential T = (T2-T1). By determining the influence of

the temperature differential between warm and cold reservoirs the importance of the heat
reserves on the evaporation side for the efficiency is shown. The other aim of this experiment is
to investigate the relationship between volume flowrate of water inlet and water outlet
temperature.

Objectives:
1) To determining the efficiency of the heat pump as a function of the temperature
differential.
2) To study the relationship between volume flowrate of water inlet and water outlet
temperature.
Methodology:
Result:
Experiment 1: Determine Efficiency of Heat Pump as a Function of Temperature Differential
Time, t (s)
0
30
60
90
120
150
180
210
240
270
300
330
360
390
420
450
580
510
540
570
600
630
660
690
720
750
780
810
840
870
900
930
960
990

T1

T2

Table 1: Temperature T1 and T2 as function of time t

Mass of water, m
Specific heat capacity of water c (H2O)

=
=

Using formula:

T/K

T 2
cm
P . t

T2/K

Table 2:

Graph:
Efficiency,

T/K
Figure 1: Efficiency of Heat Pump