Investigation of the heat pump water heater using economizer vapor injection system and mixture of R22/R600a

This paper presents the experimental study of a heat pump water heater (HPWH) using economizer vapor injection system and mixture of R22/R600a. Performances of HPWH using economizer vapor injection system are compared with that at different mixed mass ratios of R22/R600a. Study demonstrates that the heating capacity and energy efficiency ratio (EER) of the unit increased, and the discharge temperature of compressor decreased when using vapor injection and mixing refrigerant of R22/R600a. It is also found that the HPWH unit with economizer vapor injection system has a better performance for the high outlet water temperature under lower temperature conditions at 15% mass ratio of R600a for the mixing refrigerant. In addition, fundamental and practical influence of vapor injection pressure on the HPWH performance has been investigated experimentally. The simplified model is proposed for predicting the optimal vapor injection pressure of compressor using the mixing refrigerant R22/R600a.