• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2015

In this study, the optimization and performance characteristics of a cascade heat pump system was analyzed with the variation of low stage refrigerant charge amount. The cascade heat pump was designed and constructed with R134a and R410A as the refrigerant for high stage and low stage cycle, respectively. Experiments were conducted by varying the low stage charge amount and the performance characteristics of the cascade heat pump were studied. The refrigerant charge amount of the low stage cycle was varied between the ranges of -15% and +10% of the optimum charge amount. The performance variation experienced in the cascade heat pump due to the variation of refrigerant charge amount shows greater effect in the undercharge regions than the overcharge regions. COP reduction in the undercharge region is larger than the decrease in the overcharge region. Some cycle variation such as power consumption and cycle pressure according to low stage refrigerant charge amount showed different trends comparing with those according to high stage refrrgerant charge amount. Therefore, the optimum charge amount of the cascade heat pump should be determined based on the experimental data obtained by the variation of high and low stage refrigerant charge amount.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Mechanical Technology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.113-118
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• 2011

To analyze and verify the effect of replacing thermal storage heater by a cascade cycle heat pump using midnight electricity was installed and tested at a customer's house in Wonju, Korea. The electric night storage heater is consist of 30kW electric heater and 2,700 liters of thermal storage water tank to supply hot water for warming house floor. The power for electric heater was cut off and hot water was only generated by cascade cycle heat pump. Current thermal storage water tank was not eliminated and electric heater wiring was modified. Some operation logic of the heat pump was also modified for proper operation. The required capacity of the heat pump and hot water temperature for given warming condition were estimated. The estimated capacity of heat pump was about 19kW and estimated hot water temperature for proper heating was at least $75^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.225-232
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• 2013

Heat pump systems have been widely adopted in buildings for cooling and heating, due to their higher energy efficiency. Recently, the demand for hot water supply from the heat pump system has been increasing. To increase the water supply temperature with higher system efficiency and reliability, a heat pump water heater adopting cascade cycle was investigated in this study. The cascade heat pump water heater consisted of a low-stage cycle using R410A, and a high-stage cycle using R134a. A simulation program for the cascade heat pump water heater was developed, and verified by comparison with experimental data. The performance of the cascade heat pump water heater was optimized, by varying the compressor rotating speeds of the low- and high-stage cycles. At low ambient temperatures, the performance of the cascade cycle was compared with that of the single-stage cycle. The system efficiency of the cascade cycle was higher than that of the single-stage cycle, showing a lower compression ratio and compressor discharge temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.1-7
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• 2013

Most researches done on heat pumps have been on heat pumps for refrigeration, cooling and heating. There is therefore the need for more research on hot water heat pumps, especially for high temperature. Even though the cascade heat pump cycle has a great potential more efficient hot water generation even at low evaporating temperatures, it has been researched least for this purpose. In this study, the heating performance of a variable speed cascade heat pump was investigated by varying operating conditions. For the same heating capacity values, it was found that increasing the low stage compressor speed was more suitable for enhancing the performance of the system to get a higher temperature.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.544-549
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to investigate the field Operation Characteristics of a sea water heat source cascade heat pump system and system applicable to Building. Cascade heat pump system is composed R410A compressor, R134a compressor, EEV, cascade heat exchanger, Plate heat exchanger etc. Building area is $890m^2$ and has five floors above ground. R410A is used for a low-stage working fluid while R134a is for a high-stage. The system could runs at dual mode. One is mode of general R410A refrigeration cycle in summer and the other is cascade cycle. In order to gain a high temperature supply water in winter season, the system is designed to perform a cascade cycle. The filed test results show that the sea water heat source heat pump system exhibits a COP of about 5.5 in cooling mode along with a heating COP of about 4.0 in 1-stage heating mode. Cascade 2-stage heat pump system is enough to supply $60^{\circ}C$ water and heating COP is about 3.0

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.1969-1973
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance of a sea water heat source cascade heat pump system. R717(Ammonia) is used for a low-stage working fluid while R134a is for a high-stage. In order to gain a high temperature supply water in winter season, the system is designed to perform a cascade cycle. In this study, two experiments were carried out. One is a system starting test from the low load temperature of $10^{\circ}C$. The other is a system performance investigation over the R717 compressor capacity changes. Experimental results show that when it starts from the low load temperature, the suction temperature of the low-stage compressor is higher than that of a high-stage. The system performance increases when a water source temperature or a low-stage compressor rotational frequency goes higher.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.27-32
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• 2016

It is estimated that only heating and cooling take about one third of the total energy consumption worldwide. However, the conventional heating and cooling systems have low efficiencies. Also, boilers and electric heaters that are mostly used to generate both domestic and industrial hot water are inefficient and high energy consumers. For this reason, cascade heat pumps which are known to be very energy efficient and have less environmental impact are being promoted to replace conventional heating, cooling and hot water systems. In this study, a newly designed cascade heat pump by two-stage water heating method has been experimentally investigated. By adopting the auxiliary heat exchanger, the performance of the system was increased. The performance enhancement rate of the system could be maximized by adjusting the low stage compressor speed rather than the high stage compressor speed. The performance of the system with the auxiliary heat exchanger was enhanced by 16.5%.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.7-11
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance of a water heat source cascade heat pump system R717(Ammonia) is used for a low-stage working fluid while R134a is for a high-stage. In order to gain a high temperature supply water in winter season, the system is designed to perform a cascade cycle. In this study, two experiments were carried out. One is a system starting test from the low load temperature of $10^{\circ}C$. The other is a system performance investigation over the R717 compressor capacity changes. Experimental results show that when it starts from the low load temperature, the suction temperature of the low-stage compressor is higher than that of a high-stage. The system performance increases when a water source temperature or a low-stage compressor rotational frequency goes higher.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.422-425
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• 2009

A sea water source cascade heat pump was designed and tested in this study. The system was designed to perform a single stage operation in summer, as well as a cascade operation in winter to ensure the high temperature lift. A steady-state simulation model was developed to analyze and optimize its performance. The simulation results show that the R717 exhibits best performance among combinations considered in this study. A R410A also exhibits the highest performance among HFCs with the smallest compressor displacement. A 15-RT R410A-R134a pilot system was installed in the 5-story commercial building at Samcheok City by the East Sea. A scroll type R410A compressor, a reciprocating type R134a compressor, plate type condenser/evaporator/ cascade heat exchanger and two electronic expansion valves were used to build a pilot. A titanium plate type heat exchanger is also used for the heat exchanging with a sea water. The heat source/sink water is supplied from the well below the seashore in the depth of 5 m. In the initial test of the system, supply water temperature was rising up to $67^{\circ}C$ using a sea water heat source of $9^{\circ}C$, while an ambient temperature was $4.5^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.191-196
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• 2017

Owing to the harmful environmental effects of HCFC and CFC refrigerants discovered in the late 20th century, the need for environmentally friendly refrigerants such as $CO_2$ in cooling systems has increased. Air-source $CO_2$ heat pumps that utilize ambient heat in cold winter are less efficient because of a higher evaporation temperature, and it is difficult to manufacture the components of the heat pump owing to a super critical pressure of over 130 bar. This research aims to overcome these disadvantages and improve energy efficiency by introducing a new lower-pressure $CO_2$ auto-cascade heat pump system. $CO_2$-R32 zeotropic refrigerants were considered for two-stage expansion and effective cooling heat exchanging system configurations of the new auto-cascade heat pump. The results indicated that the efficiency of the two-stage expansion system was higher than that of the original one-stage expansion system. Furthermore, the two-stage expansion system showed significant performance improvements when the two-stage expansion stage from highest pressure of 70bar, intermediate expansion pressure of 25bar, and final low pressure of 10bar is applied. The COP of the new two-stage auto-cascade system (2.332) was 43.15% higher than that of the present simple auto-cascade system (1.629). Refrigerants having an evaporation temperature of $-10^{\circ}C$ or lower can be obtained that can be easily evaporated in an evaporator even at a low temperature.