Transient thermal behavior of a water heater system driven by a heat pump

A dynamic model of a water heater system driven by a heat pump was designed to investigate transient thermal behavior of the system which was composed of a heat pump and a hot water circulation loop. Finite volume method was applied to describe the heat exchangers, and lumped parameter models were used to analyze the compressor and the hot water reservoir. Dynamic performances were evaluated as the hot water temperature changes for various sizes of the hot water reservoir. In order to compare the performance characteristics, time scale was normalized by the time constant determined from a quasi-steady state simulation of the system. From the simulation, the smaller size of the water reservoir was found to have larger transient performance degradation, and the larger size caused additional heat loss during the hot water storage period. Therefore, the reservoir size should be optimized in a design process to minimize both the heat loss and the performance degradation.