Abstract :
A heat-pipe enhanced solar-assisted heat pump water heater (HPSAHP) is studied. HPSAHP is a heat pump with
dual heat sources that combines the performance of conventional heat pump and solar heat pipe collector. HPSAHP
operates in heat-pump mode when solar radiation is low and in heat-pipe mode without electricity consumption when
solar radiation is high. HPSAHP can thus achieve high energy efficiency. A prototype was designed and built in the
present study. An outdoor test for a HPSAHP in the present study has shown that COP of the hybrid-mode operation
can reach 3.32, an increase of 28.7% as compared to the heat-pump mode COP (2.58).
2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
