A NOVEL PCM BASED REVERSE CYCLE DEFROSTING METHOD FOR AIR SOURCE HEAT PUMPS
The most widely used standard defrosting method for air source heat pumps (ASHPs) is reverse cycle defrosting. However, the fundamental problem of this method is that there is insufficient heat available during defrosting. This consequently leads to a poorer operating performance, reduced indoor thermal comfort for occupants and a poorer system reliability, etc. In order to solve this problem of insufficient heat and a number of its associated operational problems, in the paper a novel thermal energy storage (TES) based reverse cycle defrosting method for ASHPs using phase change material (PCM) was presented. The schematics, operation modes and control strategy of ASHP using the TES defrosting method developed were introduced. The experimental results indicated that the novel reverse defrosting method solve a number of problems including a longer defrosting time and a poorer system reliability and etc. existing in current ASHP.