Heat Pump for Heating Water for Domestic Purposes Using a Varying Speed Compressor Control

A computer simulation is developed to study the energy efficiency of a heat pump with a controlled variable speed compressor to heat bath water in a residential building. The usage of electric energy to heat water in Brazil will be discussed to give the context of the proposed set. Scroll compressor is chosen as the variable speed compressor, a heat pump model is used and also water distribution models that consider the local heat losses. A PID controller is used and different techniques of references are considered to determine the reservoir water temperature. Results are discussed and compared to traditional Joule effect water heating.