Quasi-Steady State Modeling of an Air Source Heat Pump Water Heater

Abstract Heat pump systems can be found in high number of applications. One of these is the production of domestic hot water. This paper presents a quasi-steady state simulation model to predict the performance of a simple air source heat pump water heater (ASHPWH). The mathematical model consists of submodels of the basic system components, namely, evaporator, condenser, compressor, and expansion valve. These submodels were built based on fundamental principles of heat transfer and thermodynamics. The model was coded into MATLAB software and used to predict system parameters of interest such as hot water temperature, evaporating and condensing pressures, heat rejected in the condenser, electric power input, heating seasonal performance factor, and coefficient of performance.