A study on the performance characteristics of a testing facility for a water-to-water heat pump

Heat pump testing facility is used to investigate the performance and reliability of a heat pump unit. During the testing period, energy is utilized by the facility mainly through cooling with a refrigeration unit and heating with an electric heater to control and maintain the test conditions of the heat pump unit. However, research study on the energy consumption analysis of the heat pump test facility is rarely found in literature. In this study, the performance characteristics of the testing facility for a water-to-water heat pump are investigated according to the variation of heat pump capacity and COP in both cooling and heating operating modes. The objective is to analyze the energy consumption of the test facility used to investigate the performance of a water-to-water heat pump unit. The analysis of experimental test results showed that the total energy consumption rate of the heat pump test facility increased as capacity and COP of heat pump increased in both cooling and heating modes. However, the increment according to COP variation was smaller than capacity variation. Also, the total energy consumption rate of the testing facility was about ten times more than the energy consumption rate of the heat pump unit.