Experimental study of enhancing heating performance of the air-source heat pump by using a novel heat recovery device designed for reusing the energy of the compressor shell

A novel heat recovery device designed to recover the heat that is released from the outer surface of heat pump compressors, and to enhance the performance of heat pumps in cold areas was made and tested in this study. The novel heat recovery device consists of three fundamental units: a heat absorption unit, a heat emission unit and heat pipes. An amount of work focused on recovering the heat of compressors through oil system, but few studies concentrated on the housing. The main advantage of the heat recovery device is no need for extra energy consumption for its only driving force is the temperature difference between the compressor shell and the working fluid inside the suction line. The experimental results were obtained from a series of tests with a R410A air-source heat pump. Effects of the device are analyzed with respect of the suction temperature, temperature distribution among the housing, input power and exergy destruction. Moreover, the impact on the heating capacity is also discussed. Further, direction for improvement is also given based on the analysis.