Experimental investigations on the effectiveness of micro heat pipe array heat exchanger for heat recovery for residential building

Abstract

For residential building, air-to-air heat exchanger for heat recovery using micro heat pipes array (MHPA) were designed, constructed and tested under normal temperature operating conditions. The heat exchanger is constituted by 4 rows of MHPA and each row has 12 heat pipes. A heat exchange has been developed and constructed for investigating the performance of the heat exchanger for heat recovery. The experiment is conducted in the enthalpy potential laboratory. In summer conditions, temperature of indoor air maintain 24°C, and the outdoor temperature increased from 27°C to 40°C. In winter conditions, temperature of indoor air maintain 20°C, and the outdoor temperature increased from −9°C to 14°C. The air face velocity range was from 0.64 to 1.50m/s. According to the experimental results, the air velocity and temperature difference between indoor and outdoor air significantly influenced the effectiveness of the MHPA heat recovery units. Additional, the studies on the influence of inclination angle on the MHPA performance.Finally, by comparing this heat exchanger recovered energy and the energy consumption, the result indicate that it has great potential for energy savings, and also has a great application prospect in residential building.