Component efficiencies of a vapour-compression heat pump

Abstract The reasons of the considerable decrease of COP of a real heat pump in comparison with the Carnot heat pump have been expressed by means of the component thermodynamic efficiencies which determine the influence of the particular irreversible processes on the coefficient of performance of the considered heat pump. The COP of the total installation is expressed as a product of component efficiencies. A very large deleterious impact of irreversible heat transfer processes is demonstrated. Component efficiencies indicate the possibilities of the improvement of the installation.