Experimental Investigation
The preliminary experimental evaluation involved building and instrumenting an ISAHP system in a laboratory setting, based on the recommendations of component sizing given by Freeman [4].
The solar collector in Figure 1 was replaced with an auxiliary heater in order to perform controlled experiments. Quasi steady-state tests were run at range of constant input temperatures with all variables constant except for the natural convection flow rate. The natural convection flow rate varied throughout the duration of the test while the tank temperature increased. The preliminary results indicated that the original computer model over-predicted the actual COP of the system.
This discrepancy was determined to be due to an over-prediction of the heat exchanger effectiveness values for both the condenser and evaporator. After correcting the heat exchanger effectiveness values in the simulation, the results for power consumption and COP matched to within 3.0 % of each other for the 10oC test.
