Technology Transfer Department

Application sectors

Problem to solve

Research activities on heat pumps (HPs) aim to contribute to the identification of more efficient and environmentally friendly air conditioning solutions, capable of increasing the number of users that can be efficiently served by HP technology (e.g. single-family and multi-family users, users in cold climate zones, etc.). In particular, research aims to reduce the primary energy required for air conditioning, at least by 2.5 times compared to a gas boiler, and to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 60% compared to appliances based on fossil fuels. Furthermore, research intends to increase the share of RES in air conditioning technologies which could reach a value of 82.5% of the total primary energy required, with an HP average performance coefficient of 3,36 and with a use of RES in electricity generation of 38%.

Description

The research activities on residential air conditioning with heat pumps use many systems, whose versatility allows the execution of characterization tests both of individual components (heat exchangers, compressors, etc.) and of the whole machines. The main systems available for the research activity are described below: • ENEA CALORIMETER: it is an infrastructure consisting of a climatic chamber and a hydronic loop that allows the execution of performance tests of reversible air-water heat pumps, conventional and high temperature, with thermal capacity up to 50 kW. The tests can be performed in static mode (for the measurement of performance coefficients, COP) and dynamic mode (for the measurement of seasonal performance coefficients); the system also allows the study of innovative defrosting solutions for finned coils, the characterization of machines with low GWP refrigerants and PCM (phase change material) storage tanks. • GEOTHERMAL SYSTEM: it allows static and dynamic performance tests of high temperature heat pumps, dual source air-ground; the plant is equipped with four geothermal wells of different depths, which can be used separately; it can be used to study both the direct use of the ground as a thermal source, throughout the entire heating and cooling seasons, and the use of geothermal fields as thermal storage. • SOLAIRHP plant: it is used for testing dual source air-solar heat pumps, and solar source electrical production and storage devices. The thermo-photovoltaic panels can operate as evaporators of the heat pump: in this case, the refrigerant directly cools the panels, ensuring the temperatures of the photovoltaic modules is kept under control, with the consequence of maintaining a high electrical production performance.

Research group involved