Feasibility study of exploiting gearbox oil temperature of wind turbine for improving a heat pump water heater in cold areas

Abstract

Purpose. Feasibility of completely dispensing with solar collectors (SCs) that are used in heat pump (HP) systems for hot water in cold areas. Methodology. Since the temperature of gearbox oil is relatively high, lots of heat can be exploited. Therefore, the recovery of this unutilized heat from gearbox oil temperature of a wind turbine shows a promising solution in improving heat pump (HP) efficiency for hot water especially in cold environment or the district that is located in the north of our planet where the solar energy is very low. This investigation focuses on the feasibility of direct conversion of mechanical energy harvested from the wind speed into thermal energy by exploiting only the friction phenomenon inside the gearbox of the wind turbine by completely dispensing with solar collectors (SCs) that are used in combined solar assisted heat pump (SAHP) because the SCs have various problems, such as large heat loss, low efficiency, freezing and tube-burst, which may limit their applications. Findings. Results show that the wind turbine can provide the power required for HP during the winter season due to high wind speed in Xuzhou city, Jiangsu, China particularly in January. At best, coefficient of performance (COP) may reach 4.08 without SCs, thus the suggested system ensures high COP in addition to decrease in the fuel consumption by 23.25%. Originality. Wind power driven HPs have been suggested in many pervious papers as a sustainable measure to provide heat to a house; however, to improve COP of HP system, we suggest using a wind turbine to directly drive the HP and exploit gearbox oil temperature in an assistant heat exchanger installed after the HP evaporator for providing additional thermal energy to refrigerant R12 and cooling the gearbox oil. Practical value. The coefficient of performance (COP) of HP has reached 4.08 without SCs, so the suggested system demonstrates high COP in addition to the reduced fuel consumption. Approximately 23.25% of energy could be saved using this novel system compared to a fuel water heater for DHW.