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Effective use of heat pumps for various heating applications 93
In Fig. 3.6, an air-water heat exchanger is used for heating the ambient air before
entering the mixing chamber (MC). Thus, after the MC, a mixture of ventilating
and ambient air with a temperature being approximately equal to the temperature in
the room (20 C) is supplied to the evaporator of the heat pump. Figures 3.7 and
3.8 show ways of using the heat of waste water.
3.1.4 Heating with ice: An efficient and inexpensive source of
energy for heat pumps
An ice storage system consists of a tank for water and ice storage, a heat exchanger, and
a solar collector or a solar-air absorber (Fig. 3.9). The cylindrical tank is made of con-
crete, and when installed it does not require a large land area as would horizontal ground
heat exchangers or the drilling of deep wells. The ice storage system uses the heat of
water crystallization during the phase transition from a liquid to a solid (w334 kJ/
kg). Thus, a system with a thermal power of 20 kW consists of one or two bunkers
3
with a volume of 10 m of water. The system uses the heat of various sources, namely,
solar energy, the heat of the ground and groundwater. Heat is supplied by means of a
regenerative heat exchanger located on the outer wall of the bunker. In summer, the
ice storage is used as a natural source for cooling the premises. Ice may be produced
at night when electricity rates are low and used during the day for air conditioning.
The efficiency of several heat pump units under a variety of conditions is shown in
Table 3.1.
3.1.5 Heat pump performance calculations
The relative energy efficiency using primary energy of fuel for the indicated schemes
in Table 3.1 was analyzed. The basic equation comparing the performance of a heat
pump to the performance of a conventional fuel-fired power plant is given as Eq. (3.1):
h hps h $h $COP HP
pp
hp
h rel ¼ ¼ ; (3.1)
h hb h $h hg
bi
Fig. 3.7 Possibilities for energy recovery from wastewater [3].

