Natural gas engine driven heat pump system – a case study of an office building

Farshad Kimiaghalam

doi:10.32920/ryerson.14661444.v1

Abstract

<p>An eQUEST model was developed to conduct a study of a natural gas engine driven heat pump (GEHP) for an office building in Woodstock, Ontario. The results were also compared with a roof-top unit to investigate annual potential energy saving using GEHP. The models were also calibrated with regression analysis which was obtained from measured data and validated with respect to ASHRAE Guideline 14-2002. The developed ad validated models were used to predict the performance of these system in different regions of Ontario; Toronto, Ottawa, Windsor and Thunder Bay. The results for five cities were compared in terms of annual energy, GHG and energy cost savings. It was concluded that Thunder Bay has the highest annual energy and GHG saving, while Toronto has the highest annual energy cost saving.</p>

Highlights

Heat pumps (HPs) are cyclic devices that transfer heat from low temperature medium to high temperature one
The result of this study showed that the integrated primary energy ratio (IPER) method is more accurate, convenient and simpler to evaluate the performance of gas engine driven heat pump water heater (GEHPWH) than seasonal primary energy ratio (SPER) method
Results obtained by running eQUEST simulation software for both gas engine-driven heat pump (GEHP) and roof top unit (RTU) are discussed

Summary

Introduction

Heat pumps (HPs) are cyclic devices that transfer heat from low temperature medium to high temperature one. Heat pumps absorb heat from the outdoor environment and transfer it to the building that requires heating whereas in the summer time they reject heat from the building to the outdoor environment. They usually operate on vapor-compression cycle or absorption-compression cycle. Depending on the outdoor sources, heat pumps can be classified as air, water or ground source heat pumps. They can be categorized as electric driven heat pumps (EHPs), air source heat pump (ASHP), ground source HP, geothermal energy HP, solar assisted HPs or gas engine driven heat pumps [1-3]. Air-source heat pumps (ASHPs) can be classified into the electric heat pump the gas engine-driven heat pump (GEHP), and the gas absorption heat pump (GAHP)

Methods

Results

Conclusion