Technological innovations in heat

pump systems
Renato M. Lazzarin
Dipartimento di Tecnica e Gestione dei Sistemi industriali – DTG Università di Padova (Italy)
E-mail: [email protected]

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Abstract It is estimated that about 140 million heat pumps are working in the world. This evidences
that the equipment conceived by Lord Kelvin back in 1852 has finally penetrated into the market. In the
last 20 years the heat pump has improved both regarding the thermal exchange surfaces, the
compressor, and the control and defrosting systems. Thus not only was the COP strongly improved but
also seasonal performances. Further equipment improvements are aimed to better exploit the
properties of new refrigerants, utilising even the pressure drop between condenser and evaporator,
usually dissipated by throttling. Gas driven heat pumps were also improved with higher efficiency i.c.
motors and much longer maintenance intervals. Absorption heat pumps are now available in many
different models suitable to different applications. Probably most improvements took place with lower
heating temperatures and the use of cold sources more suitable than the outside air, above all surface
and underground water, the ground and the recovery in mechanical ventilation systems.

Keywords heat pump; innovation

1. A survey of the actual heat pump market

During the last ten years the heat pump market has spread greatly in the world. After
developing in the US and Japan, it has spread towards new and unexpected markets,
particularly in China. A recent evaluation gives an estimate of 130–140 millions of
heat pumps in the world with an annual thermal production estimated at 1300 TWh
for 2001. This energy is used for 57% in residential heating, 27% in commercial
applications and 16% in industry.
The first promoting element of thermodynamic heating, as heat pump heating is
sometimes called, was the reversible operation. An inversion valve on a summer air
conditioner allows switching from summer operation with an evaporator inside to
winter operation with a condenser inside (Fig. 1). This promoted firstly the selling
of heat pumps in the US during the 1970s (more than 100,000 units were already
installed in 1972). Then, secondly, it favoured the spreading of heat pumps in Japan
where at the beginning of the 1990s more than one million units were sold every
year. Even nowadays most heat pumps are installed in residential buildings in tem-
perate and mild climates where summer cooling is requested and during winter
outside air can be a very suitable heat source.
Other applications are, however, increasing from surface or ground water heat
pumps to ground heat pumps. The latter can be favourably used even in cold climates
and they are used increasingly in Northern countries such as Canada and Sweden.
Other heat pump developing fields are in heat recovery in building mechanical
ventilation and in sanitary water heating. Yet one sector of the market which should

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Figure 1. Winter operation of a reversible heat pump (doc. Carrier).

not be neglected is heat pumps driven directly by heat either by an i.c. engine (but
recently also by an e.c.) or absorption heat pumps.
The market growth is particularly important in Europe where the annual increment
has two digits in recent years, such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden.
Let us consider the example of Germany where the increase of the heat pump market
was 30% in 2004 (Fig. 2).
The heating capacity of this equipment is very different: from a few kW for a
sanitary water heat pump to more than 10 MW for some district heating heat pumps
installed in Sweden.
From this survey of the market it appears to be of greater interest to understand
the technological developments that the various manufacturers offer.

2. A short history of the heat pump

The heat pump is one of the few devices conceived in the theory before practice. Sadi
Carnot’s analysis back in 1824 primarily applies to the steam engine, but a fundamen-
tal role in his Réflexions is played by the concept of a reversible cycle that implies the
possibility of realising a cooling machine. Passing from cooling machine to heat
pump is rather simple for us: it is enough to change the roles of cold source and heat
sink. The useful effect of the heat pump is the heat that the cooling machine must
dissipate. However, theoretical passing required 28 years. William Thompson, the
famous Lord Kelvin, wrote the report ‘On the economy of the heating and cooling of
buildings by means of currents of air’. It was written in 1852 and it contains the
interesting technological proposal of using the air as a working fluid (Fig. 3). The air

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Figure 2. German heat pump sales from 1992 to 2004.

Steam engine
drive
External
to building atmosphere
Drive
Egress
Ingress
cylinder
cylinder

Receiver

Figure 3. Lord Kelvin’s heat pump.

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Figure 4. Schematic of the open cycle mechanical vapour recompression heat pump
realised by Peter Ritter von Rittinger in 1855.

taken from outside is expanded: thus it is cooled well below the outside air tempera-
ture and it can be heated by outside air through a simple heat exchanger. Therefore
the compression that follows the expansion heats the air to a temperature high enough
to heat a room.
Some years after that famous writing, Lord Kelvin added the following note to
his work:
The method of heating air described in the article remains unrealised today. When Niagara
is set to work for the benefit of North America through electric conductors, it will no doubt
be largely employed for the warming of houses over a considerable part of Canada and the
United States. But it is possible that it will also have applications though less large in other
cold countries to multiply the heat of coal and other fuel, and to utilise wind and water power
for warming houses. [1]

Meanwhile practical knowledge was also developed. In 1851 John Gorrie, a

doctor and amateur technician, patented the first compression cooling machine,
realised on the purpose of relieving his patients’ suffering in Florida’s hot climate.
The very first heat pump was built in 1855 by the Austrian Peter Ritter von Rittinger
who installed an open-cycle mechanical vapour recompression (MVR) unit, directly
driven by hydro energy, in the saltern of Ebensee, Upper Austria (Fig. 4) [2]. The
vapour developed in the aqueous solution concentrators at a temperature of 117ºC
and a pressure of 170 kPa was compressed till 300 kPa. The condensation tempera-
ture at that pressure is 138ºC. Therefore vapour condensation allowed to develop a

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266 R. M. Lazzarin

like vapour quantity at a COP higher than 10. The condensate before discharging
preheated the salt diluted solution at the inlet of the concentrators.
During the nineteenth century the heat pump was not considered a useful device
both for the eventual cost of the equipment and the lack of suitable refrigerants.
Moreover, direct combustion either of wood or coal was much less expensive. Even
the cooling equipment had difficulty in its competition with natural ice that was
stored in winter for the following summer over the centuries. Organic refrigerants

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were developed in the 1930s with a progressive development of cooling equipment.
Apart from isolated installations (the most in Switzerland and in Scotland and one,
well known in Italy, in Milan), the first commercial heat pump spread took place in
US during the 1950s. The utilisation of this equipment in North America’s icy
winters suddenly evidenced the weak points. The much higher pressure ratio gave
rise to frequent compressor failures as this device was conceived for lower ratios.
Other problems (defrosting, compressor slugging and lack of lubrication) gave a
low reliability reputation to heat pumps and produced a selling stagnation for a 10
year period (from 1963 to 1973). The heat pump rediscovery in the US happened
during the first energy crisis when the various design and constructive faults were
already faced and solved. However, the two energy crises in 1973 and in 1979 were
not conclusive in promoting heat pump selling in spite of very favourable conditions,
above all after 1979, with regard to the relative cost of electricity and fossil fuels.
The possible annual utilisation of the heat pump was conclusive for its wide spread
use in Japan: 95% of the air conditioners in Japan can operate as heat pumps. The
same applies to the recent spread in China, where about 60% of the 11 million heat
pumps are reversible. Only recently public opinion and government politics began
to accept high initial costs for heating devices against lower working costs and
reduced pollution. This allowed not only technological progress in the classical
electric heat pumps but also the growing and technological development of niche
products such as gas heat pumps.

3. Heat pumps: field experiences

It seems useful to supply a short survey of a study of 237 less than 20 kW heat pump
plants in the frame of a project promoted by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy [3]
before analysing the technological development of heat pump machines and
plants.
Failures, users’ complaints and seasonal performances were recorded for these
plants for the period from 1995 to 2002. About 45% of plants are equipped with air
water heat pumps, whereas the rest are water-water heat pumps or brine-water
ground source heat pumps. The surveyed Seasonal Performance Factor (SPF) was
3.4 for water-water heat pumps and 2.6 for air-water. The former number derived
from a wide spreading of data probably due to the different sizing of the ground
probes. The survey of the plants built up during the analysis period demonstrates
the progressive equipment and plant improvement with an increase of 20% in SPF
from 1995 to 2003 both for air source plants (Fig. 5) and ground or ground water
systems (Fig. 6).

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Figure 5. SPF for air source heat pumps as a function of the year for new, refurbished or
all devices.

Figure 6. SPF for ground or ground water source heat pumps as a function of the year
for new, refurbished or all devices.

Everybody is aware of the great importance of customer satisfaction in a market

analysis: the study reveals 78% of very happy heat pump owners, 17% quite happy
and only 5% are unhappy (a percent that seems physiological: it is also the minimum
predicted percentage of dissatisfied in thermal comfort analysis). The considered
working period in the survey was of 1,300,000 hours. During this time, 8500 hours
of faults occurred. Over 70% of the plants operated without faults. The average

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268 R. M. Lazzarin

Relative variation of nSPF 2

all heat pumps
1.20
1.15
SPF year n/year 1 [-] 1.10
1.05
1.00

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0.95
0.90
0.85
0.80
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
year

Figure 7. Relative SPF variation starting from the first working year.

4.0
3.5
3.0
SNG [-]

2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
SNG A/W
100% HP

SNG A/W
0% HP

SNG B/W
100% HP

SNG B/W
0% HP

Figure 8. SPF for air (A/W) and water (B/W) heat pumps according to the provision or
not of domestic water heating service.

duration of the fault (time from notice to rectification) was only six hours (!).
Depending on the type of fault, out of service times ranged from about two hours
to more than three days.
SPF survey during the years did not show appreciable variations (Fig. 7) with
very stable performance. Domestic water heating is very important to improve SPF
of the plants with regard to the only ambient heating for both kinds of heat pump
systems (Fig. 8).
A final interesting datum regarding ground source heat pumps is where the
average circulating fluid temperature was 5ºC, a much higher temperature than

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0.6
real machines COP
Ex/Q
0.5 2

0.4
HP
3

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0.3
4
0.2 5

0.1 refrigeration 10
heating
20
50
100 50 0 50 100 150 200
Temperature lift [K]

Figure 9. COP (scale on the right) or requested exergy per thermal unit (on the left) for
ideal or real cycles as a function of temperature lift.

expected, but coming out of a great data sample. Many plants were largely oversized
with practically no auxiliary heating operation.

4. Electric heat pumps

When considering the possible use of a heat pump, one should always be aware of
the strong sensibility of performance to the low and high temperatures of the cycle,
or as otherwise stated, the temperature lift above the cold source temperature.
Performance means both COP and capacity. As far as COP is concerned the
maximum performance is given by the reverse Carnot cycle:

COP = T c

T c −T e
Possible COP variations are represented in Fig. 9 as a function of the temperature
lift. The lowest values are usually due to small capacity machines whereas the
highest are for large size machines. A similar trend strongly influenced by the tem-
perature lift can be found for the capacity.
This suggests at least two important considerations:
1) Before every effort to look for higher level heat sources, one should select care-
fully the heating system in order to lower the heat supply temperature. It is
meaningless to operate with systems which need the highest temperature level
attainable by the machine (usually around 60ºC), when systems are at hand

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Figure 10. Capacity line of an air-water heat pump compared with a building load as a
function of outside temperature for a conventional radiator heating system.

which can distribute the heat at temperatures lower than 35ºC, such as heating
panels or all air systems.
2) The outside air, the most common heat pump source, is thermodynamically the
least favourable source since the thermal load is increasing when its level is
decreasing so that both heat pump COP and capacity decrease.
Let us consider in Fig. 10 the heating load as a function of the outside air tem-
perature compared with an air water heat pump (AWHP) output [4]. Capacities find
their balance point in E. On the left, heat pump output is no longer sufficient to
compensate the heat load and an auxiliary boiler must provide the left part. The
downside in the figure is that the trend of the water temperature is represented for
supply and return to a radiator system with a control on the supply temperature when
the outside air temperature varies. The choice of the balance point is fundamental
for the plant economy. Too much ‘on the right’ means lower initial costs as the
machine capacity is lower but also the annual contribution to the heating require-
ments is lower. Too much ‘on the left’ means a higher initial cost as the capacity is
higher but the device might operate at reduced load for a long period. The outside
air temperature distribution must be known for a correct sizing.
Once the balance point is fixed, the operation can be either in parallel with the
auxiliary heater for lower temperature or in series with the boiler after the heat pump.
Heat pump operations suffer some constraints. One is the reaching of the maximum

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heat pump working temperature. In the figure this is reached when a 55ºC tempera-
ture is demanded for an outside air temperature of 5ºC. The other constraint is due
to the heat pump contribution when set in series with the auxiliary. Again this
happens in the figure at 55ºC supply for an outside air temperature of 1ºC.
This example was considered at length because it underlines some important
points. Firstly, the described situation would be much more favourable with a low
temperature heating system such as a radiant floor or ceiling with supply tempera-

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tures as low as 30–40ºC. The heat pump would have developed a higher heating
capacity with a higher COP. The same machine had allowed a balance point more
‘on the left’ with a longer utilisation period of the heat pump without the working
constraints described before. Secondly similar and cumulative benefits could be
obtained with a constant temperature cold source, as reported in the figure by the
two capacity steps of a double speed ground source heat pump. The balance point
shifts to lower outside temperatures, though the heat pump COP keeps high.
The electrical heat pump is still the most widespread type in the different applica-
tions. The most outstanding technological innovations were produced at the begin-
ning of the 1990s using screw compressors for medium capacity and scroll or rotary
compressors for lower capacities. At that time the partial load operation was already
carefully considered with the first variable speed inverter systems.
Moreover a careful design was devoted to the air side heat exchangers with lou-
vered or corrugated fins and finned or ribbed tubes. The use of enhanced heat transfer
surfaces (produced by specialised firms such as Wieland or Hitachi) began just then.
The purpose was to reduce the temperature shift between the outside fluids and the
refrigerant both in evaporation and condensation (Fig. 11).

4
T
4′

1 Tc
T1

Ta
2 3
Te

Figure 11. Temperature differences in a heat pump cycle between outside fluids and
refrigerant.

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Figure 12. Comparison between a microchannel heat exchanger and a conventional tube.

This effort has continued recently with microchannel heat exchange surfaces (Fig.
12) where the refrigerant charge can be reduced (by more than 40%) and perfor-
mance improved keeping the same volume of heat transfer surface. Other efforts
were devoted to the CFC substitutes both toward fluids such as R410A and natural
refrigerants, particularly propane, ammonia and above all carbon dioxide.
Perhaps the most outstanding innovations were related to compression and expan-
sion processes from condenser and evaporator (and vice versa). As far as compres-
sion is concerned, a two stage process was realised, particularly for fluid characterised
by high pressure lift such as carbon dioxide. A possibility was the injection of liquid
refrigerant during the compression. This is possible both in screw and centrifugal
compressors (Fig. 13).
For operation at partial loads a system less expensive than inverter speed modula-
tion was conceived. It operates on scroll compressors under the commercial name
of digital scroll. A simple lifting of 1 mm of the fixed scroll stops the gas supply
that is bypassed between inlet and outlet of the compressor (Fig. 14). The lifting
allows modulating alternating period of full compressor load with periods of by pass
by 20 seconds cycles. The full compressor load can extend from 20 seconds
(maximum capacity) to 10 seconds (half capacity) till 2 seconds (20% capacity) thus
modulating in a simple and reliable way.

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Figure 13. Two stage compression.

Figure 14. Schematic of digital scroll compressor.

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Figure 15. Transcritical cycle for a carbon dioxide heat pump equipped with an expander
device.

Figure 16. Comparison between the energy input required by a heat pump with or
without the expander.

Regarding the expansion, usually achieved by throttling, prototypes have been

developed to exploit the refrigerant expansion to produce a fraction of the compres-
sion work. The benefit can be appreciable in transcritical cycles such as with carbon
dioxide [5]. A specific cooling effect increment is obtained (Fig. 15). Moreover the

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Table 1. Development specification (Microturbo S series)

Type MTSH175

Operation mode Cooling Heating

Compressor type MCM50S

Capacity 175 kW 175 kW

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Temp. of chilled and hot water 7ºC out/12ºC in 40ºC in/45ºC out
Outside air temperature 35ºC db/24ºC wb 7ºC db/6ºC wb
Power consumption 35 kW 43.75 kW
COP 5.0 4.0
COP of conventional machine (2.7) (3.2)
Control system Variable speed control, inlet guide van control, fan
control, sprinkling control

produced useful work can lower the compression work by more than 10% according
to the first experimental results, even if the expander efficiency is only 59% (Fig.
16).
For higher capacity applications the novelty of turbochillers operating with R134a
must be considered. These were applied at first for the high capacities of district
cooling with very high COPs, over 6. A recent application was magnetic levitation
of oil free shaft supports. These innovative compressors were applied also to heat
pumps with a power consumption of 35–45 kW and a capacity of 175 kW both for
cooling and heating. Table 1 reports the performance both in cooling and in heating
mode [6].
Problems regarding defrosting must be taken into account when dealing with
air source heat pumps. As it is well known, the air temperature at the surface of
the outside evaporator usually drops below dew point with liquid formation. When
the temperature drops below 0ºC and the condensate is plentiful, frost is formed
increasingly on the heat exchange battery. The frost operates a kind of thermal
insulation for the heat exchange, moreover it thickens till clogging of the air
passage occurs. It is then of paramount importance to identify the condition of
defrosting. Hot gas is passed inside the external battery either by cycle reversing
or by bleeding of hot gas from the compressor. Defrosting goes on for some
minutes. In this period a cooling effect is produced in the room inside in the case
of cycle reversing (the inside battery operates as evaporator) or no heating is
produced. Furthermore, defrosting penalises heat pump efficiency: when COP is
represented as a function of outside temperature a typical drop is found for outside
conditions that require defrosting (Fig. 17). Therefore the accurate identification
of defrosting requirement and its achievement is particularly important. The
maximum frost formation takes place for outside temperatures between 5ºC and
0ºC. For lower temperatures the air specific humidity is small and it does not
produce appreciable ice formations.

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Figure 17. COP ratio nominal Eurovent value (Tair = 7ºC, relative humidity 70%)
keeping into account defrosting.

Figure 18. Percentage of total electrical energy consumption of heat pumps required for
defrosting (mean values for the heat pumps measured).
Legend:
HG = hot-gas defrosting
PR = defrosting using cycle reversal
A-7/W35 = Air temperature of minus 7ºC and water temperature of 35ºC.

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Figure 19. Percentage of total effective heat pump operating hours used for defrosting
(mean values for the heat pumps measured; HG = hot-gas defrosting, PR = defrosting
using cycle reversal; for PR: bottom part is for actual defrosting process, and upper part
is for heating up the heating system again).

The required energy to operate defrosting is not negligible. Fig. 18 reports the
percentage of energy required for defrosting for different working conditions for the
outside air and the heated water temperature [7]. The bars refer respectively to
defrosting by hot gas injection or cycle reversing. About 10% of the energy required
by the heat pump is due to defrosting with worse performance of the hot gas injec-
tion mode that is, however, less penalising for thermal comfort.
The analysis also shows the required time to provide defrosting (Fig. 19). It is a
function of outside air conditions and it sometimes exceeds 10% of the heat pump
total working period. In the case of cycle reversing mode the upper bar gives the
time fraction required for heating up the heating system again.
A recent proposal to mitigate the energy request and thermal discomfort due to
defrosting was produced by Oak Ridge National Laboratory [8]. The starting point
is the survey that the frost formation is not significant if the surface of the outside
battery is kept over −2.8ºC when the outside temperature is between 0ºC and 5ºC.
A small thermal power is provided to the liquid accumulator before the compressor.
For a heat pump whose capacity is between 10–15 kW the required thermal power
is of about 1 kW. This heat (that returns as room heating effect) allows increased
suction pressure and temperature with a delay in frost formation. Laboratory tests
revealed that for the same working conditions frost develops after 100 minutes in
the traditional system, whereas the proposed system requires defrosting after about

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Figure 20. Innovative system to delay the defrosting by a moderate heating of the liquid
accumulator.

twice as long, that is after around 3 hours. Moreover in the traditional system defrost-
ing is 10 minutes long while the heat pump supplies about 10 kW (with an electric
power of about 3.5 kW), whereas the proposed system defrosting is 12 minutes long
but with a required electric power of only 1 kW.
A schematic of the circuit is represented in Fig. 20 where an electric heater is
provided just before the evaporator and, as presented in the paper, in the liquid
accumulator. Seasonal performance data that reports the heater operations to keep
the evaporator over −2.8 ºC are not available so that seasonal performance advan-
tages cannot yet be claimed, but the system appears really promising.
Beyond the different technological innovations described above, a picture is
reported that illustrates the continuous SPF improvement both of heat pumps and
air conditioners (Fig. 21). This improvement is due of course not only to the innova-
tions of the equipment but also to the more favourable plant conditions.

5. Gas driven heat pumps

For a country like Italy where the electric installed capacity is scarce it is worthwhile
considering the developments in the field of gas driven heat pumps, taking into
account that natural gas is plentiful in summer. Gas driven heat pump can be clas-
sified as i.c. motor driven heat pumps with heat recovery and absorption heat pumps.
Both allow high Primary Energy Ratios (PER), often much higher than for electric
driven heat pumps (at least if electricity is generated with traditional thermoelectric
plants with efficiency slightly higher than 40%).
As far as motor driven heat pumps are concerned, small capacity machines are
available, with about 30 kW capacity. Motors are less than one litre displacement

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Figure 21. SPF improvements during the last 25 years in heat pumps and air
conditioners.

at 3 or 4 cylinders, water cooled with thermal recovery on the exhaust and the
cooling water, mechanical power of about 7–8 kW. The great novelty is due to the
maintenance intervals that arrive at 10,000 hours. The same interval is claimed for
the lubricating oil change. This extension is surprising: it would be like a car chang-
ing the oil every 300,000 or more km!
Some improvements were made to the motor to increase its efficiency. Some
manufacturers applied the Miller cycle that already some Japanese car producers
use. The Miller cycle is used in supercharged motors and it is similar to the Otto
cycle, except for the intake phase. This terminates at the Bottom Dead Center (BDC)
in Otto cycle. Intake valve duration is from two degrees before Top Dead Center
(TDC) until 70 degrees after BDC in Miller cycle, that is the intake valves remain
open for around an additional 30º of crankshaft rotation beyond ‘normal’. This
delays the true compression phase of the mixture and a fraction of the intake charge
is blown back out the intake valves. The charge loss and the volumetric efficiency
reduction is more than compensated by the supercharging, usually obtained by a
volumetric compressor (not a turbocharger): a screw compressor is usually used.
Compression phase takes place after intake valve shut. The effective compression
ratio is reduced from 10 : 1 to about 8 : 1. Also piston compression work is reduced.
Motor specific power loss is low, while its operation is smoother with a lower pro-
duction of NOx. Combustion process is better, so much the more because the charge
is hotter than an intercooled supercharge.
The main point is that for the higher compression efficiency of a screw
compressor compared to the piston compression the compression work is reduced
by 10 to 15% with an improvement in overall motor efficiency of a few percent
[9].
Improvements have also been made to the motor control system. The motor can
operate at a variable speed so that heat pump capacity is modulated according to the
demand. Defrosting is no longer necessary as outside air batteries are set just over

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Exhaust
Fan

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Air

Accumulator

Compressor

Figure 22. Air to water motor driven heat pump (doc. Sanyo).

the motor (Fig. 22). Finally the noise is comparable to a common boiler (55 dB(A)
at 1 m). Some data can suggest the possible PER obtainable: a small capacity model
gives 26.5 kW heat with a natural gas demand of 19.4 kW (LHV) and electric power
of 0.7 kW for the auxiliaries. PER is then 1.32. The same device can operate as an
air conditioner with a cooling effect of 22.4 kW (gas input 17.8 kW) with a cooling
PER of 1.21.
Absorption heat pumps are the other group of gas driven heat pumps. Till now
the absorption machine has been used above all as an air conditioner, though its
operation is more suitable to heat pump mode. In fact even if only a block diagram
of the cycle is considered (Fig. 23), it is easy to perceive that the energy taken from
the evaporator can produce a useful effect during absorption. The energy cost is
essentially a heat supply to the generator to separate the refrigerant from the solution.
A second useful effect is then obtainable at the condenser, so that a PER of 2 could
be theoretically obtained. Technically achieved PERs are of about 1.3–1.4, that is
as high as in motor driven heat pumps. The advantage of the absorption heat pump
lies in the few moving parts, then in its reliable and silent operation. Moreover,
according to the thermal balance just presented, the thermal request to the heat pump

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Figure 23. Simplified scheme of an absorption heat pump.

cold source is well below (even at the same PER) than a conventional electric heat
pump. This allows a smaller size of the outside air batteries and lower costs for cold
source which are particularly expensive like the ground.
Two kinds of machines are on the market: water-lithium bromide and ammonia-
water. The latter are more suitable to heat pump mode as evaporation can drop below
0ºC so that outside air is a possible cold source.
Moreover higher temperatures can be reached arriving even at more than 60ºC.
In the past very few models were on the market. Long ago an absorption cooling
machine was modified in Germany to operate as a water to water heat pump under
the Rekord brand, but with bad results. Demonstration devices of higher capacity
(250 kW) were also developed as the Dutch Colibrì heat pump that installed an
absorption heat pump to heat a big public building at Maastricht in 1993, using as
the cold source the near Maas river.
The major novelty in this field is the appearance on the market of a series of new
absorption heat pumps in the range of 30–40 kW of the air to water type with
summer-winter operation and water to water type with possible contemporary
heating and cooling.
A schematic of the air to water heat pump is represented in Fig. 24. The presenta-
tion (much more effective in the animations in the company website [10]) can start
from the generator, set on the left that can be identified from the side burner which

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Figure 24. GAX air to water absorption heat pump (doc. Robur).

develops ammonia vapours from the solution. The vapours are rectified and then
passed to the condenser (set on the right) with a useful thermal effect. Liquid
ammonia evaporates in the air battery all around the machine, taking thermal energy
from the outside air. The vapour is directed by the 6 way inversion valve (set just
the condenser aside) toward the absorber generator (in the middle of the figure).
Absorption produces a strong thermal effect in a wide temperature range owing to
the strong concentration difference between rich and poor solution. This thermal
effect lowers the energy supply the burner must provide. In fact the rich solution
flows in the coil (the absorber inside where it is heated) before passing to the gen-
erator (GAX cycle – Generator Absorber Heat Exchanger). Final refrigerant absorp-
tion supplies a further thermal effect in the second absorber (the condenser aside).
The ratio between the useful thermal effect and the LHV of the requested natural
gas is of about 1.4, whereas the electric power for the solution pump and control
panel is of 0.9 kW.
One of the novelties of the machine is the 6 way inversion valve. It allows the
machine to operate also as an air conditioner with a cooling capacity of 17 kW and
a 0.67 COP. The air battery can also be easily defrosted, directing the refrigerant
vapour from the generator directly to the battery instead of to the condenser when
defrosting is demanded.
The schematic of the water to water machine is represented in Fig. 25. This device
can operate with cold source different from the outside air, like surface or ground

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Figure 25. GAX water to water absorption heat pump (doc. Robur).

water or the ground itself. Moreover the possible double heating and cooling effect
could be exploited. Instead of the outside battery a heat exchanger is provided
between the evaporating refrigerant and a hydronic circuit where refrigerated water
for contemporary cooling and heating or cold water from one of the previously listed
cold sources can circulate.

6. Heat pump systems progress

Probably the most important technological innovations in heat pumps concern the
systems. Firstly low temperature heating systems are often realised, usually radiant
systems that can lower to something more than 30ºC the heating fluid temperature.
The lowering of the temperature has improved the COP well before other technologi-
cal innovations. Secondly, cold sources different from outside air were selected.
Four main possibilities should be mentioned:
• heat recovery on mechanical ventilation systems;
• water loop systems;
• surface or ground water systems;
• ground source heat pumps.
A short description of these possibilities follows.
As far as the heat recovery on the exhaust air is concerned, it can be operated
with heat exchangers that can recover only a fraction of the available enthalpy,

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wet and dry

cooler

water to air
heat pumps

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circulating
pumps
to the source

from the
renewable source
thermal source

Figure 26. Water loop plant with decentralised heat pumps operating both in heating and
cooling mode. The ring is thermally balanced by an air cooling system and a thermal
source that could be ground or surface or ground water.

especially if the heat exchanger is only for sensible heat. Cold source is at an
excellent temperature level and it is perfectly phased with the fresh air heating
demand.
A contemporary heating and cooling demand in the same building gives excel-
lent possibilities of energy savings: this happens more often than one can imagine,
particularly in well insulated commercial buildings. A water loop supplies to many
reversible heat pumps installed in the different zones of the building moderate
temperature water which is a good heat pump cold source but also a heat sink for
the air conditioner (Fig. 26). Of course heating and cooling requirements are not
always balanced: a water loop sometimes dissipates the excess heat (obviously in
summer) and is sometimes lacking thermal energy: this must be supplied if pos-
sible by a free and renewable source such as the ground. Systems operating on
surface or ground water are an excellent possibility both as regards constancy of

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Figure 27. Heat exchange system for surface water (a lake) and heat pumps.

the temperature levels during the year and of the temperature values. In the case
of surface water utilisation it is not always necessary to directly pump the water:
surface water heat exchangers can be used in the form of long and cheap HDPE
coils as represented in Fig. 27.
Finally ground coupled heat pump systems must be considered. The cold source
is more and more often obtained by vertical tube heat exchangers that sometimes
exceed 200 m depth. This subject is outside the purpose of this paper. It is important
only to recall the thermal stability of the ground at higher depths and the possibility
of using the system as a kind of a seasonal storage. For a size of 50 W/m of tube
for the probes, a SPF (Seasonal Performance Factor) of 4.5 can be reached. This
value can be improved by reducing the temperature drops from the ground to the
heat pump. A lot of systems use a secondary fluid to take heat from the ground to
the heat pump. Few systems (widespread in Austria) use direct expansion [11].
Recently a very innovative proposal provides vertical heat pipes, where the fluid is
carbon dioxide (Fig. 28). This would eliminate the energy cost of the brine circula-
tion and the hazard of the fluid leakage in the direct expansion systems. A hundred
plants have been built up till now with a heat pipe that sometimes exceeds 65 m
with a temperature drop between the two pipe sides of only 2ºC. A pipe as deep as
100 m is being experimented. This diversified picture of the state of the art heat pipe
equipment and systems terminates describing a really innovative plant built up in
Holland. The plant was set into operation in 2003: nine blocks with 382 40-year-old
apartments were retrofitted for higher energy efficiency. The first action was better
insulation regarding both the walls and the windows. Secondly a mechanical ventila-
tion system with heat recovery was installed in each apartment. Thus heating demand

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Figure 28. Heat pipe ground probe.

Figure 29. Solar collector modules on the roofs of the apartment blocks.

was lowered, so that the existing heating radiator plant became oversized and it
could operate at lower temperatures. The domestic hot water heating system of each
apartment had to be replaced for safety reasons. A centralised domestic hot water
heating plant was selected for each block. The most striking part of the plant is an
area of 2850 m2 of flat plate solar collectors set on the roof of the 9 blocks, that is
an area of 7.6 m2 for each apartment (Fig. 29).

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Figure 30. Simplified scheme of the energy system.

Solar collectors satisfy almost completely summer hot water demand, storing the
excess heat in a central aquifer storage set at a depth of 115 m, connected to the
plant by two wells. In winter the stored heat is used both for preheating sanitary hot
water and as the heat pump cold source. Each apartment block (about 40 apartments)
is heated by two absorption heat pumps with an overall heating capacity of 76 kW.
The water taken from the aquifer is the heat pump cold source. The storage can
supply up to 45 m3/h at a starting temperature of 45ºC at the beginning of the heating
season.
A short term storage is also provided with a volume of 9.5 m3 in each block.
During sunny winter days, solar heat can be stored at a rather high temperature,
which makes the heat usable for space heating and pre-heating of domestic hot water.
A scheme of the energy system is represented in Fig. 30 with the two wells for con-
nection with the aquifer on the right; for a single block solar section and short term
storage are also represented. A 70% energy saving is anticipated. This project is
expected to be the first in a series of similar projects in existing housing districts in
Holland [12].

References
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2005.
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[4] I. Kilikis, ‘Advantages of combining heat pumps with radiant panel heating and cooling systems’,
IEA Heat Pump Centre Newsletter, 11(4) (1993), 28–31.

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[5] K. Sakitani, M. Moriwaki, M. Okamoto, E. Kumakura and T. Okamoto, ‘Development of a two-

phase flow expander for CO2 heat pumps and air conditioners’, 8th IEA Heat Pump Conference, Las
Vegas, 2005.
[6] W. Seki et al., ‘Development of a high performance turbo-chiller’, 8th IEA Heat Pump Conference,
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[12] H. Buitenhuis, ‘2 MegaWatt project. The most energy efficient heating system in a retrofit housing
project’, IEA Heat Pump Centre Newsletter, 21(4) (2003), 18–20.

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