Heat-pipe enhanced solar-assisted heat pump water heater

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).