Air-cooled heat pump with desuperheater: Retrofit for year-round service hot water supply

Abstract

In a case study project an air-cooled heat pump unit was retrofitted with a desuperheater to provide service hot water in addition to chilled water for comfort space cooling in a 24-room holiday villa located in a subtropical region. The retrofit project is described, and system operating performance and energy efficiency are reported. A standard cooling tower was used to extract free heat from ambient air in transitional seasons, thus eliminating the need for electric back-up heating for service hot water.