Performance of Add-On Heat Pump Water Heater (HPWH) Systems and Their Impacts on Electric Utility Loads

This work involves measurements, analyses, and evaluations of the performance of add-on, Heat Pump Water Heater (HPWH) systems in residential and small commercial applications. Two air-source Heat Pump (HP) systems rated at 7,000- and 12,000-BTU (2.051- and 3.517-kWh), were utilized in this work. The two HPs were retrofitted to two 50-gallon (189.3 liters) electric-resistance storage water-heaters with their electric heating elements removed. A third, standard electric water-heater (EWH), was used for comparison. The testing set-up was fully instrumented for measurements of pertinent parameters, including inlet and outlet water temperatures, inlet and outlet air temperatures of the HPs, temperature and humidity of the air in the surrounding space, volume of water draws out of the storage heater tanks, as well as electric energy consumptions of the systems. Several performance measures were used in this work, including the Coefficient of Performance (COP), which is a measure of the instantaneous energy output in comparison with the energy input; Energy Factor (EF), which is an average measure of the COP taken over extended periods of time; and the First Hour Rating (FHR), which is a measure of the maximum volume of hot water that a storage type water-heater can supply to a residence within an hour. The results obtained clearly indicate that, HPWH systems are much more efficient as compared to standard EWHs. While the average value of the EF for a standard EWH is close to 1.0, the HPWH systems yield EFs averaging more than 2.00, resulting in annual energy savings averaging more than 50%. The results also showed that, HPWH systems are effective at reducing utility peak demand-loads, in addition to providing substantial cost savings to consumers.