Hi Andrew and Christine, I saw in this article the simultaneous use of the heat and cold from condensor and evaporator in a chiller. I was developing a prototype for this and even thought about patenting because never saw it applied even if it is so simple. I am new here and don’t regret to see that it exists already, I can only be relieved to see that both sides of the system are used, which gives approx a doubling of the efficiency. I would like to know more about it and where I can find small water/water heat pumps of one or a few kW electric consumption so that I don’t have to open air conditioner and bend the fragile copper piping.
It was nice to see that the application was in “industry” (drying and cooling food). I imagine which kind of users might benefit from it, too: hospitals, hotels, municipalities that need heat and cold at the same time for many months. These users are in a good position to save a lot of energy. If water/water heat pumps are used, thermal storage becomes possible, which is much safer and cheaper than batteries.
I am looking forward to your reply.
Norbert N. Vasen
The simultaneous cooling and drying research was carried out at Purdue. Although they were able to achieve both with one unit using a variable valve, a downside is that there are efficiency concerns. For example, if you are running the condenser at high enough temperatures for drying, you reduce the coefficient of performance of the refrigeration process. In my view, there might be specific applications where you need drying on one occasion and cooling on another, or applications needing cooling and process heat simultaneously. For off-grid applications that use solar PV as a power source, however, a technnology such as this would have to be competitive with simple solar drying. I’m happy to provide more info, if needed. Thanks for your interest. Andrew
Larry Bentley and F. Andrew Dowdy are trying to solve the problem of refrigeration for off-grid communities in developing countries. With distinguished careers, an impressive array of projects,...
Hi Andrew and Christine, I saw in this article the simultaneous use of the heat and cold from condensor and evaporator in a chiller. I was developing a prototype for this and even thought about patenting because never saw it applied even if it is so simple. I am new here and don’t regret to see that it exists already, I can only be relieved to see that both sides of the system are used, which gives approx a doubling of the efficiency. I would like to know more about it and where I can find small water/water heat pumps of one or a few kW electric consumption so that I don’t have to open air conditioner and bend the fragile copper piping.
It was nice to see that the application was in “industry” (drying and cooling food). I imagine which kind of users might benefit from it, too: hospitals, hotels, municipalities that need heat and cold at the same time for many months. These users are in a good position to save a lot of energy. If water/water heat pumps are used, thermal storage becomes possible, which is much safer and cheaper than batteries.
I am looking forward to your reply.
Norbert N. Vasen
Norbert, Thanks for the question. The various teams finished their work last year, and you can find a paper on the results here: https://www.ewb-usa.org/wp-content/uploads/Chill-Challenge-Final-Report-031322.pdf
The simultaneous cooling and drying research was carried out at Purdue. Although they were able to achieve both with one unit using a variable valve, a downside is that there are efficiency concerns. For example, if you are running the condenser at high enough temperatures for drying, you reduce the coefficient of performance of the refrigeration process. In my view, there might be specific applications where you need drying on one occasion and cooling on another, or applications needing cooling and process heat simultaneously. For off-grid applications that use solar PV as a power source, however, a technnology such as this would have to be competitive with simple solar drying. I’m happy to provide more info, if needed. Thanks for your interest. Andrew