NO.3 SEPTEMBER 2014

Heat Pump & TES’s current situation in each country（China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, India）
CONTENT・ABSTRACT・RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF LARGE SCALE GROUND SOURCE HEAT PUMPSYSTEM (CHINA)・HEAT PUMP WATER HEATER : KEY ALTERNATIVE PLAYER (KOREA)・RESERCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF COMBINED SOLAR THERMAL HEAT PUMP HOT WATERSYSTEM (VEITNAM)
・CURRENT STATUS OF ENERGY SAVING POLICY ON AIR CONDITIONERS AND BUILDING UP
OF AIR CONDITIONER PERFORMANCE TESTING FACILITIES IN ASIAN COUNTRIES (JAPAN)
・ROLE OF HEAT PUMP IN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION(INDIA)

http://www.hptcj.or.jp/e/ahpnw/tabid/571/language/en-US/Default.aspx

ASIAN HEAT PUMP & THERMAL STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES NETWORK
ABSTRACTSRESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF LARGE SCALEGROUND SOURCE HEAT PUMP SYSTEM (CHINA)
A large number of ground-source heat pumps (GSHP) systems have been used in residential
and commercial buildings in different climate zones in China because it was considered as anenvironmentally-friendly and cost-effective alternative with potential to replace fossil fuels andhelp mitigate global warming by the central government since 2006. The total floor area thatuses this technology is nearly 10 times at the end of 2012 compared with 2006. Ground heatexchanger heat pump system in China are always used for large scale residential andcommercial building with the floor area more than 20,000 m2 and some surface water and sea
water heat pump system could reach to city level, such as provide heating and cooling withseveral large GSHP energy station for an new district with the building floor area more than 5
million m2. At the same time, how to planning, design and operation such large systemcorrectly to achieve higher COP is still needed to be answered. With latest research anddevelopment information of large scale GSHP collected from EU, USA and Japan, this paper
raise a series of questions that needed to be solved in China in the future to keep promoting
this technology, such as simultaneity usage coefficient of different buildings selection in one
district, more accurate TRT and ground water flow consideration during the load calculation,
heat extraction and rejection point selection and control strategy for hybrid system

HEAT PUMP WATER HEATER: KEY ALTERNATIVE PLAYER (KOREA)Electric heat pump water heater technology draws in warm ambient air to more efficiently heatwater for residential use. Recently, heat pump water heater sales have increased dramaticallyin several countries including: China, Japan, France, Germany, and Denmark. If thetechnology was adopted in place of less efficient technologies such as electric resistanceheating, and sales achieved a 10% market share, it could save almost 1.3 billion
kilowatt-hours of energy annually. Furthermore, with estimated annual household savings of$290 (ENERGY STAR, 2009), consumers would benefit from lower utility bills. Recently ISO(international Organization for Standardization) has launched to develop a new standard for adomestic hot water supply heat pump water heater. This paper is to report a market situationof, product application of and standardization of heat pump water heater which is in the
spotlight as an alternative to heating and supplying hot water using the existing equipmentused fossil fuel and resistance electric heater.

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ASIAN HEAT PUMP & THERMAL STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES NETWORK
ABSTRACTS

RESERCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF COMBINEDSOLAR THERMAL HEAT PUMP HOT WATER SYSTEM (VEITNAM)
Solar domestic hot water systems are widely used due to their capability of saving energy. In
order to cope with the intermittent solar radiation on both seasonal and daily bases, they areusually combined with a conventional system that uses electrical energy or fossil fuel.
Recently, heat pump systems with the improvement of the efficiency, together with thedecrease in their cost are widely disseminated not only in air conditioning applications, butalso in applications such as drying or hot water production. Because a heat pump system canreduce the consumed energy to third or even to sixth, the use of heat pump as an auxiliary
energy source for solar domestic hot water system can achieve a significant energy saving.
Unfortunately, this kind of hot water system is still not widely spread. Therefore, solar domestic
hot water systems that use heat pump as back-up sources have been developed in a research
project with the number sign of KC.05.03/11-15.

CURRENT STATUS OF ENERGY SAVING POLICY ON AIR
CONDITIONERS AND BUILDING UP OF AIR CONDITIONERPERFORMANCE TESTING FACILITIES IN ASIAN COUNTRIES (JAPAN)
With growing global awareness of energy saving in recent years, the fast-growing Asian
countries are actively introducing the MEPS, labeling systems and others for home applianceproducts including air conditioners in order to curtail energy consumptions that grow year by
year. For ensuring effectiveness of such energy saving schemes, performance testing
facilities are required to accurately measure the product performance. However, it isimportant for creation of such energy saving schemes to introduce not only necessary facilities
but also many processes including calibration of measuring instruments and mutual calibration
with external organizations. A third party air conditioner performance testing laboratory, JATL
has been ensuring a steady implementation of its efforts based on ISO/IEC17025 and has
maintained high accuracy and reliability. Moreover, JATL periodically implements mutual
calibration with testing facilities of domestic air conditioner manufacturers as well as overseas
national level testing laboratories. In the future, through JATL’s technical assistance for the
yet-to-be-built testing laboratories in Asian countries, we believe that contribution to improvereliability of performance testing in energy saving systems in each nation will prove to be
mutually beneficial.

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ASIAN HEAT PUMP & THERMAL STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES NETWORK
ABSTRACTS

ROLE OF HEAT PUMP IN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION (INDIA)
The Northeast states of India are the eastern-most region of India connected to East India via
a narrow corridor squeezed between Nepal and Bangladesh. The key development issues
and challenges are basically backward rural areas, poor connectivity within the states and withrest of India, lack of industrialization, accelerated growth rate of urban centres andenvironmental protection. These states are power deficit in spite of huge potential for hydropower generation but majority of rural and semi urban areas because of its difficult terrain are
not connected to grid and these areas would remain off grid in future as well.

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People’s Republic of China

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF LARGE SCALE GROUNDSOURCE HEAT PUMP SYSTEM
Shicong Zhang ，Wei Xu
China Academy of Building Research (CABR), Beijing 100013, China

Abstract: A large number of ground-source heat pumps (GSHP) systems have been used inresidential and commercial buildings in different climate zones in China because it wasconsidered as an environmentally-friendly and cost-effective alternative with potential toreplace fossil fuels and help mitigate global warming by the central government since 2006.
The total floor area that uses this technology is nearly 10 times at the end of 2012 comparedwith 2006. Ground heat exchanger heat pump system in China are always used for large
scale residential and commercial building with the floor area more than 20,000 m2 and somesurface water and sea water heat pump system could reach to city level, such as provide
heating and cooling with several large GSHP energy station for an new district with thebuilding floor area more than 5 million m2. At the same time, how to planning, design andoperation such large system correctly to achieve higher COP is still needed to be answered.
With latest research and development information of large scale GSHP collected from EU,
USA and Japan, this paper raise a series of questions that needed to be solved in China in
the future to keep promoting this technology, such as simultaneity usage coefficient ofdifferent buildings selection in one district, more accurate TRT and ground water flow
consideration during the load calculation, heat extraction and rejection point selection andcontrol strategy for hybrid system..
Key Words: large scale, GSHP
1

INTRODUCTION

Since 2000, GSHP started to be used in few small pilot projects, the total floor area that uses
this technology reach to 240 million m2 at the end of 2012, which is nearly 10 times comparedwith 2006. Technical Code for Ground Source Heat Pump System GB50366-2005 made aclear definition of GSHP for China, which let the government much easier to provide policies
and subsidies for this technology. But, due to the China’s fast development in urbanizationand its own building form, GSHP always use for large building more than 20,000m2 and evenfor district with total building floor area reach to 5 million m2. As the system goes larger, the
COP of the system couldn’t reach the design requirement and some problems raise up. By
latest research and development information collection of large scale and city level GSHP of
EU, USA and Japan, the future research area that should be paid attention to in China are
discussed..
2

RESEARCHES AND DEMOSTRATION OF LARGE SCALE GSHP

Ground-source heat pumps (GSHP) systems have been used in residential、commercial andindustry buildings throughout the world because of the highly energy saving and greenhouse~ ４ ~People’s Republic of China

gas emissions reduction potential. The GSHP technology can be used both in cold and hot
weather areas and the energy saving potential is significant. During the past few decades,
due to the renewable energy policies and financial subsidy, GSHP systems have been
applied in larger and larger scale around the world, some systems even reached communityand city level. ( Ioan, 2014).
2.1

EU large scale GSHP utilization

On 2008, the European Parliament adopted the Renewable Energy Directive ， which
establishes a common framework for the promotion of energy from renewable sources. This
directive opens up a new opportunity for widely use of heat pumps for heating and cooling of
new and existing buildings. Also, EU set up three key objectives for 2020, known as the"20-20-20" targets, which including Raising the share of EU energy consumption produced
from renewable resources to 20%.
With the promotion from the EU and member countries, GSHP had been promoted bydifferent programs, such as The GEO.POWER project etc. The GEO.POWER project(“Geothermal energy to address energy performance strategies in residential and industrial
buildings ” ) (B.M.S. Giambastiani.,2014) was co-financed by the European Regional
Development Fund in the frame of the INTERREG IVC Programme. The general project
objective was to exchange the partners' own experiences on heating and cooling supply
mainly through GSHP and from low enthalpy geothermal energy. After a SWOT technical andcost–benefit assessment, Participants evaluated the reproducibility and transferability of thebest practices currently exists in Europe. It could find out that the most transferable exampleof technology is the TELENOR building in Hungary. The TELENOR building is a new
industrial building with 180 Borehole Heat Exchangers (BHE) drilled 100m deep for cold andhot water, it also has 168 m2 solar collectors to meet 60–70% of the hot water demand. The
CO2 emission saving could reach to 800–850t/year and the energy saving is 2.1 million kWh;the payback time is 8–10 years.
The core results achieved by the GEO.POWER project focused on the elaboration of actionplans to encourage the GSHP market development and through the use of the EU StructuralFunds in the current and in the future Programming Period 2014–2020. All documents containa set of potential flanking measures to be implemented in the concerned areas to address
strategies for GSHP large scale introduction and subsidy schemes to support geothermalenergy investments.
Most large cities use tunnels to provide transportation and utility networks and some of thetunnels need to be cooled to meet operational requirements. Nicholson D. P. discusses theuse of system-wide thermal tunnels with closed loops embedded in the tunnel segments to
extract heat from the tunnel and then used with GSHP systems to heat adjacent buildings via
a district heating system. After the detailed analysis of the system, Nicholson D. P. point out
that this kind of large scale GSHP system requires a city scale investment in long term heat
supply because the thermal tunnel system requires an early investment when the tunnels arebeing built to provide pipe work for heating adjacent buildings (Nicholson D. P.2013). The
author carried out a preliminary study for the buildings in a corridor extending 100m beyond
the tunnels for CROSSRAIL project, which including 34 hotels, large residential, hospitals, 4schools, colleges, libraries, museums and 327 offices, leisure centers, retailers, with theconclusion that based on header pipe access points connecting to 500m of twin tunnels, theheat output would be about 200 to 600kW for 10 to 30 W/m2 of tunnel surface heat extraction.
A. Sciacovelli (A. Sciacovelli,2013) investigated the impact of a ground source heat pumpinstallation for a public building in Italy through a thermo-fluid dynamic model of thesubsurface which considers fluid flow in the saturated unit and heat transfer in both the~ ５ ~People’s Republic of China

saturated and unsaturated units. The building is 160m high and its volume is about
240,000m3. The groundwater flows in the south-east direction toward PO River, which isabout 2 km far from the building. The groundwater system is composed of four wells, two for
the water extraction and two for the re-injection. The distance between re-injection andextraction wells is 150m, while the transversal distance between the wells is 80 m. The
cooling season lasts for about 6000 h with a peak request of 7MW and the heating period is ofabout 2800 h with a peak heating load of 2.5MW for the building. The author made analysis of
two possible scenarios, one is constant heat pump mass flow rate case and the other isvariable heat pump mass flow rate case. The result shows that at 1.8 km downstream thewells the difference between the unperturbed temperature and thermal plume temperature isabout 3K when the heat pump operates with a variable mass flow rate and the wells thermal
plume temperature is 5K higher than the unperturbed one when the heat pump operates witha constant mass flow rate.
2.2

USA large scale GSHP utilization

Justin Mahlmann considered that the only way to achieve California’s stringent policies andemission goals that set a minimum for emissions reductions is strategic planning of theenergy system on the community scale. Technologies such as geothermal heat pumpsystems (GHPS) can be implemented to heat and cool an entire community, reducing energy
consumption, emissions and water consumption, while also serving as a backbone for carbon
neutrality and zero net energy. Justin Mahlmann introduced Ball State University GSHP
system, which have a capacity of approximately 5000 tons, and will serve the heating andcooling purposes for 47 buildings over 731 acres. The underground heat exchanger consistsof 3600 boreholes with depths ranging from 400-500 ft and diameters of 5-6 inches. Capital
expenditures for the project cost upwards of $70 – 75 million, which is only $15 million morethan that for a conventional HVAC, resulting in a payback period of 7.5 years. The system will
reduce the campus’s CO2 an estimated 85,000 tons annually (Justin Mahlmann,2012).
Alaska Sea Life Center demonstrates a seawater heat pump system with the funding from
Denali Commission Emerging Energy Technology Grant (EETG) program. Two 90-ton heatpumps were installed to provide heating and hot water. Since February 2013 the project was
successfully commission, over the course of three months of monitoring since that time (1,900
hours of system operation), the average COP was 2.90, displacing a total equivalent of
20,000 gallons of heating oil while consuming 300,000 kWh of electricity. Years to payback
the investment is 8.5(ACEP,2013).
2.3

Japan large scale GSHP utilization

Hikari Fujii developed a mass and heat transport model to simulate the long-term
performance behavior of large-scale GSHP systems with the consideration of well-to-wellinterference in the presence of groundwater flow for a public building. The GSHP system wasinstalled in the basement of a gymnasium of a public school in the central part of the Akita
Plain with 75 cast-in-place, one-meter diameter and 50m deep piles in the foundation of thebuilding. All of the piles were equipped with two 2.5 cm i.d, 50m long U-tubes to be used as
GHEs.With the set up and analysis of the field wide numerical model of Akita Plain on thebasis of groundwater levels and temperatures measured in the field. Groundwater velocity at
the GCHP system location was estimated to be 1.4×10-4m/day. Four simulation run cases allwith 120 days of heat extraction and different heat storage periods (none, 30 days, 60days,
120days) were carried out, the author find that more heat storage operations should be
implemented in the downstream GHEs than in the upstream GHEs to maintain heat extraction~ ６ ~People’s Republic of China

rates and wider GHE spacing is preferable in cases without heat storage operations(Hikari,2005).
Li Huai used both field data and a numerical simulation to examine the long term performanceand environmental effects of a large GSHP (ground source heat pump) system installed in thecity of Akabira in the north of Hokkaido, Japan. The heat exchange system of the GSHP
consists of 78 boreholes, each with a depth of 85 m, that could provide a maximum capacityof 640 and 648 kW for heating and cooling for 12 greenhouses, each greenhouse comprises a
total area of 450 m2.The system was monitored and analyzed from Oct 2010 through May
2011. The system had a COP of 3.0 and the average heat extraction rate of the system wasapproximately 27.7 W/m. Six wells were drilled in the borehole field to monitor the soil
temperature and groundwater level, the author found the ground temperature at a depth of 40
m decreased from approximately 7.8℃ to 0 ℃after 8 months of operation and the operationof system with unbalanced heating and cooling loads (less than two times) is available with anaverage groundwater flow velocity around 10-15 m/y (Huai,2013).
Table 1 Typical large scale and city level GSHP projects
Country

Location

Building
Type

Installed
year

Collector
TypeCollector
Index

Load/Heat
Pump(kW)

Hungary

Torokbalint

industrial
building-

VerticalBorehole

180*100m
2 extraction
wells, 2
injectionwells

peak heating
load=2.5MW

COP

Payback
Period(years)CO2
reduction-

8 to 10

800–850t/year

-

-

-

7.5

85,000t/year

Italy

Turin

240,000m-

Underground WaterUSA

Indiana

47 buildings

2012

VerticalBorehole

3600*120m

5000 tons

USA

Alaska-2013

Seawater-

2 90-tonheat pumps

2.9

8.5

-

Japan

Akita

publicbuilding

2003

VerticalBorehole

75*50m

-

-

-

-

Japan

Akabira12
greenhouses

2010

VerticalBorehole

78*85m

640kW forheating;

3

3

3

291t/year

CURRENT STATUS OF GSHP IN CHINA

The last decade of the 20th century was the infant phase of GSHP application in China.
During that period, policymakers and the real estate developers started to realize theadvantages of GSHP through some pilot projects.
3.1 Technical CodeOne technical code set the concrete foundation for the fast development of GSHP after 2005
because it gave the financial incentive mechanism from the central and local government atechnical reference. The technical code is ‘‘Technical Code for Ground Source Heat Pump
System (GB50366-2005)’’, which was promulgated and took effect on January 1, 2006. The
code plays a significant role for the development of geothermal heat pump industry as it is firsttime made the clear definition of Ground-Source Heat Pump System of China, which including
three major types, that are Ground Heat Exchanger Heat Pump System (same as ASHRAE~ ７ ~People’s Republic of China

ground-coupled heat pump (GCHP) systems), Groundwater Heat Pump System, Surface
Water Heat Pump System (sea water, lake water, river water and sewage water). The code iscomposed of eight parts, including general principles, technical terms, engineering
exploitation, buried pipeline heat exchange systems, groundwater heat exchange systems,
surface water heat exchange systems, indoor systems, equipment operation and trial running,etc (CABR, 2005).
3.2 Government Policies and Subsidies
On September 2006, ‘‘Opinions on promoting application of renewable energy in buildings’’
and ‘‘A tentative management method of special funds for renewable energy development’’
were promulgated by the Ministry of Construction (now called Ministry of Housing and
Urban-Rural Development, MOHURD) cooperating with the Ministry of Finance. In these two
documents, 4 of the 8 technologies which are subsidies by the state are GSHP system:
Ground source heat pump system and shallow groundwater source heat pump system.
 Water source heat pump system.
 Seawater source heat pump system.
 Sewage source heat pump system.
After that, a series of policies came out to promote GSHP on the city level and town level, atthe end of 2010, 47 cities and 98 towns got the funding from the central government topromote GSHP, each city got 50 to 80 million RMB and each town got 15 to 20 million RMB topromote this technology. Based on the information from The State Council Information Officeof P.R.China, at the end of 2006, the total floor area of GSHP application is just 26.5 million
m2, by the end of 2007, the number reach to 80 million m2, till the end of 2012, the total
project number use GSHP is 23,000 with the floor area reach to 227 million m2 and thenumber of GSHP system integration companies reach to 4,000. The increasing rate of GSHP
in China from 2000 to 2012 could be found in Figure 1 (Xu, 2013).

Figure 1 Increasing of GSHP in China

3.3

Project Type Distribution

Based on the analysis of 291 projects that funded by the Ministry of Construction and theMinistry of Finance, which the total floor area is about 32.72 million m2, we could find out that:~ ８ ~People’s Republic of China

259 projects use GHSP at the only heating and cooling source while 32 projects use hybrid
system. In the GSHP only projects, 110 projects use Ground Heat Exchanger Heat Pump
System with the total floor area of 11.19 million m2 which accounts for 33.70% of all the
projects, 78 projects use Groundwater Heat Pump System with the total floor area of 8.84
million m2 which accounts for 26.63% of all the projects, 32 projects use Surface Water Heat
Pump System (heat source are river and lake water) with the total floor area of 3.63 million m2
which accounts for 10.92% of all the projects, 16 projects use Surface Water Heat Pump
System (heat source is sea water) with the total floor area of 1.82 million m2 which accounts
for 5.46% of all the projects, 23 projects use Surface Water Heat Pump System (heat source
are civil sewage water, cooling water in Refinery, coal mine tunnel water and circulating
cooling water from thermal power plant)with the total floor area of 4.52 million m2 which
accounts for 13.61% of all the projects ( Xu, 2013).

Figure 2 Percentage of different type GSHP system in China

4

LARGE SCALE GSHP APPLICATION IN CHINA

Due to China’s different climatic zones, each type of GSHP have their own characteristics andsuitable location, The Ground Heat Exchanger Heat Pump System are suggested to bemainly used in cold, cold winter & hot summer and temperate zones. In the southeast andcoastal areas, where there is abundant groundwater and surface water resource, the Groundand Surface Water Heat Pump System are suggested to be used while in the cold and cold
winter and hot summer zone. If the heat extraction and heat rejection cannot be balanced, thehybrid systems are suggested. Because the average single building in China is always bigger
than the western style and with a much more quantity, the GSHP system is usually larger.
Also, China now is going through a fast increasing period of urbanization, there are lots of
new cities, new towns, new districts and new communities, from the beginning of the planning,
GSHP was considered as the main heating and cooling source, that makes this technology
goes to city-level in China recently. Following are some pilot projects in large-scale and citylevel.

~ ９ ~People’s Republic of China

4.1

Ground Heat Exchanger Heat Pump System ProjectBeijing Zhongguancun International Mall is located in Beijing Zhongguancun Technology
District, the total floor area is 1.56 million m2. Based on the system simulation, the totalcooling load is 17MW, and the total heating load is 7.39MW.

Figure 3 Beijing Zhongguancun International Mall

Building floor
area
(m2)
156000

Table 2 Heating and Cooling load of the Mall
Cooling Load
Cooling Load
Heating Load
Index
(MW)
Index
(W/m2)(W/m2)
108.9
17
47.4

Heating
Load
(kW)
7.39

Based on the TRT, the geological condition is as follow:
Table 3 Geological condition of the Project
thermal conductivity W/(m.K)
Depth（m）
0~19m
19~32m32~35m35~38m38~44m40~52m52~57m57~70m70~75m75~100m

1.4
2.0
1.6
2.2
1.4
1.7
1.6
2.2
1.6
1.4

According to the on-site condition and the TRT result, 1,060 vertical boreholes with 123 m
depth and distance as 4.5 are drilled under the parking lot. Double-U ground heat exchanger
with diameter as DN32 is used.

~ １０ ~

People’s Republic of China

Vertical Boreholes
Figure 4 Vertical boreholes map of the projects

3 LSBLGR-M2800 heat pumps are selected, the heating capacity of single heat pump is
2.32MW, and the cooling capacity is 2.28MW. The system heating COP could reach 3.0
according to the system testing result during 120 days in the 2008 winter.
4.2

Groundwater Heat Pump System Project

Qindao Yinshengtai International Center and Business Center are two buildings in one district
near each other. The total floor area of International Center is 58,000m2 and the total floorarea of Business Center is 26,400 m2. The water extracted from underground from one well is
80t/h and the rejection data is 67t/h.
According to the calculation, 464tons of water per hour with the inlet/outlet temperature as
16℃/31℃in summer and 348t/h tons of water per hour with the inlet/outlet temperature as
15℃/7℃in winter is needed. 14 wells with the minimum distance as 40m are drilled; other 3
spare wells are also constructed. Cost of the GSHP system is 350 RMB/m2.
4.3

Surface Water Heat Pump System Project(1) Wuxi T-Park Energy Center
WUXI T-Park is a new district on the south of the urban area, the total construction floor area
will be 8 million m2, and the first phase is just finished with the total floor area of 4 million m2.
Across the district, there is a river with stable flow rate, the temperature is 6.8-12.4℃in winterand 23.6-32.4℃ in summer, also there is a sewage plant, the temperature of the sewage is
9-14℃in winter and 25-28℃ in summer. Two energy stations B and G that use the energy
from the river water and sewage water are built to supply energy for the entire district.
4 water source heat pump with cooling (heating) capacity as 7.8MW（9.2MW）and 4 water
source heat pump with cooling (heating) capacity as 5.9MW（10.6MW）are installed in theenergy center B. 1 water source heat pump with cooling (heating) capacity as 6MW(6.5MW)
and 1 water source heat pump with cooling (heating) capacity as 6MW（6.4MW）are installedin the energy center G. 860,000Mwh electricity and 900,000tons of CO2 will be saved eachyear after the whole district completed.

~ １１ ~

People’s Republic of China(2) Thaizhou Medical City Energy Center
Thaizhou is a city near Yangtse River, the water average temperature and the flow rate issuitable to use in a heat pump system to provide energy for the whole district. So the newcore city areas with the total floor area of 5 million m2 use the river water heat pump systemfor energy service. The total cost of the energy station in the first phase is 1.84 billion RMB
with the cooling load of 55MW and heating load of 38.5MW. 3 water source heat pumps withcooling (heating) capacity as 7.9MW（8.4MW）and 3 water source heat pumps with cooling(heating) capacity as 6.0MW（9.5MW）were selected for the system.
Month
Ave Temp（℃）
Flow Rate（m3/s）

4.4

Table 4 average water temperature and flow rate
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
Auf Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

9.2
6.5

22.4
22.4

17.4
13.7

12.6
6.7

10.6
8.3

13.1
9.4

17.9
15.0

22.3
22.2

25.5
24.1

28.1
18.4

29.1
19.4

26.2
18.9

Hybrid Heat Pump System Project

Figure 5 Shanghai World Expo Culture Center

Shanghai World Expo Culture Center is a mix-use building, above the ground is a theatre with
18,000 seats and the six floor building circulated the theatre, 2 floors are under the ground.
Peak cooling load in summer is 14.95MW and peaking heating load is 9.2MW in winter. The
center is very close to the Shanghai Huangpu River, the hydrological data shows that thewater temperature is 26~32℃ in the upper level and 15~22℃ in the lower level in summer, inwinter, the water temperature is 3~8℃ in the upper level and 10~15℃ in the lower level. As
in the summer the river water temperature is relatively high and in winter cold, besides theheat pump system, ice storage system and boiler are also installed for summer and winter.
According to the test, the river water heat pump system could cover 40% cooling load with
COP 5.1 in summer and 55% heating load with COP 4.1 in winter.
5

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTION OF LARGE SCALE GSHP IN CHINA

From the general data of GSHP developments in China we could find that GSHP in China arealways in a large scale and even reach to city level. According to the Ministry of Science andTechnology of China, the total area adopting the GSHP systems will be up to 350 million
square meters by the end of 2015. From the operation COP of the pilot projects, there are still
big potential for the large scale and city-level GSHP system to enhance the energy efficiency
in the future. Compare with the research of large GSHP system internationally, there are stillseveral problems that needs to be resolved in China~ １２ ~

People’s Republic of China

5.1

Simultaneity usage coefficient

When use GSHP system to provide heating and cooling for a city level system, which
including lots of residential buildings and commercial buildings, some of them are mix-use, thesimultaneity usage coefficient between different function area in the same between andbetween different buildings should be considered, especially the coefficient between different
buildings. Because for large central heating system with boilers in the northern part of China,
this coefficient should be 1 to secure the heating supply. For the mix-use building, according
to the China National Standard <Design code for heating ventilation and air conditioning ofcivil buildings> GB50736-2012, the coefficient could be 0.7-0.9. But In the GSHP system,
heating and cooling are both supply within the GSHP system, usually, the GSHP provide
cooling only for commercial buildings in summer but for heating for all the buildings, including
residential buildings in winter, how to calculate the simultaneity usage coefficient of the large
scale GSHP system is a key question.
5.2 TRT and ground water flow
For the Ground Heat Exchanger Heat Pump System, accuracy of the TRT result to calculate
the thermal conductivity will contribute significantly to the total costs of system planning. The
TRT equipment is commonly built in a few portable boxes or mounted on a car trailer for easytransportation to test sites. The mobile TRT method is becoming more and more important in
the rapid spreading of Ground Heat Exchanger Heat Pump System. In the future, how tomake the mobile TRT box smaller while more accurate will be put more effort. Groundwaterflow is normally present and could enhance the heat exchanger rate and balance the heat
extraction and injection to increase the COP of GSHP systems. But nowadays, theunderground flow rate is not taking consideration during the design of Ground Heat
Exchanger Heat Pump System; the engineer took it as a safety factor for the system. Fromthe international experience, if the underground water flow is carefully calculated, theunderground heat exchanger system could be 10-20% smaller to save cost; so the impact ofgroundwater flow on the performance of ground heat exchangers will be a future researcharea in China.
6.

CONCLUSION

More and more large scale GSHP system and GSHP energy station are used in China forbuildings and districts, GSHP have a bright future in China as an environmentally-friendly andcost-effective technology to help mitigate global warming. As the system grow larger andhybrid, some technical problems that will not affect the COP of small GSHP system obviously
became a hot topic to save cost for the large scale and city level project, such as moreaccurate TRT and ground water flow consideration during the system calculation, heat
extraction and rejection point selection and control strategy for hybrid system and so on.
Compare with the latest research and development information collection of large scale andcity level GSHP of EU, USA and Japan, the future research area of GSHP in China are
discussed.
7

ACKONWLEDGEMENTS

The work of this paper is financially supported by the 12th FYP-National Key Technology R&D
Program-Renewable Energy Utilization to Achieve Higher Level Building Energy Efficiency
Target-2014BAJ01B03.

~ １３ ~

People’s Republic of China

8

REFERENCE[1] A. Sciacovelli. Multi-scale modeling of the environmental impact and energy performanceof open-loop groundwater heat pumps in urban areas[J].Applied Thermal Engineering,
2013(65):1-10.
[2] Alaska Center for Energy and Power. An Investigation of the Alaska Sea Life Centerseawater heat Pump demonstration [EB/OL]. [2014-2-1].
http://www.uaf.edu/files/acep/ASLC_ Report_2013-8.pdf.
[3] B.M.S. Giambastiani. Energy performance strategies for the large scale introduction ofgeothermal energy in residential and industrial buildings: The GEO.POWER project[J].Energy
Policy, 2014(65):315-322.
[4] CABR. Technical code for ground-source heat pump system [M].1.China Architecture &Building Press, 2005.
[5] Hikari Fujii. Optimizing the design of large-scale ground-coupled heat pump systems using
groundwater and heat transport modeling [J]. Geothermics, 2005(34):347-364.
[6] Huai Li. Evaluating the performance of a large borehole ground source heat pump forgreenhouses in northern Japan[J].Energy, 2013(63):387-399.
[7] Ioan Sarbu.General review of ground-source heat pump systems for heating and cooling ofbuildings [J].Energy and Buildings, 2014(70):441-454.
[8] Justin Mahlmann. Geothermal heat pump systems for strategic planning on the community
scale[A].2012 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings[C].ACEEE,
2012:166-179.
[9] Nicholson D. P. Developments in thermal pile and thermal tunnel linings for city scale
GSHP systems[A].Thirty-Eighth Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering[C].Stanford
University, Stanford, California, 2013:SGP-TR-198.
[10] Xu Wei. China ground source heat pump research & development report [M].1.China
Architecture & Building Press, 2013.

~ １４ ~

Republic of KOREAHEAT PUMP WATER HEATER:
Key Alternative Player
Jun-Young CHOI,
Korea Testing Laboratory, Republic of KOREA
Abstract: Electric heat pump water heater technology draws in warm ambient air to more
efficiently heat water for residential use. Recently, heat pump water heater sales haveincreased dramatically in several countries including: China, Japan, France, Germany, andDenmark. If the technology was adopted in place of less efficient technologies such as electric
resistance heating, and sales achieved a 10% market share, it could save almost 1.3 billion
kilowatt-hours of energy annually. Furthermore, with estimated annual household savings of$290 (ENERGY STAR, 2009), consumers would benefit from lower utility bills. Recently ISO(international Organization for Standardization) has launched to develop a new standard for adomestic hot water supply heat pump water heater. This paper is to report a market situationof, product application of and standardization of heat pump water heater which is in the
spotlight as an alternative to heating and supplying hot water using the existing equipmentused fossil fuel and resistance electric heater.
Introduction

Importance of international climate change measure and environmental issues is increasing inthe 21st century, and because of adoption of the Kyoto Protocol, emissions trading between
countries and practice Stay Clean Development etc, with respect to the environment since thenew order in the energy market will be emerging, so the national response strategies to beestablished. To date, however, most of the reduction projects are about the chemical process
heat recovery or business transition primary materials and savings verification process forhigh-efficiency equipment are considered based on the input and output evaluation only. In
addition, the distorted cost structure between electricity and fossil fuels was to make adifficulty to quantify evaluation. In case of high efficiency air conditioner with a complicatedstructure needs standard to quantify the energy savings and especially standard of heat pumpdoes not define output such as indoor load, unlike input energy.
Heat pump water heater is one of application of heat pump systems to replace existing fossil
fuel boiler in domestic, commercial, and industrial area. The technology is a far more energy
efficient way to use electricity to heat water than traditional electric resistance technology.
Heat pump water heaters collect energy from the ambient air, water or the ground, andtransfer it to water in an insulated storage vessel. The electricity is used in the motor thatdrives the refrigeration compressor although some units also have backup resistanceelements for periods of high hot water demand or when the external conditions make normal
heat pump operation difficult. Heat pump water heater(HPWH) providing space heating andhot water is a product that can replace existing products using fossil fuel and an eco-friendly
green products that can reduce CO2 emissions. The most obvious benefit that homeowners
can get from an air to water heat pump is that obvious fact that they no longer have to installanother system to heat water. Basically what happens is that air source heat pump will be~ １５ ~

Republic of KOREA

recycling the heat trapped in refrigerant to produce hot water. What this means is we get hot
water free because the system uses a byproduct of its heating and cooling functions to comeup with hot water. Another reason to celebrate an air to water heat pump is that its singularinstallation will drive down utility and operating costs compared to a standard heat pump plus
a hot water heater.
Due to these advantages a lot of investment and research is in progress. Also that is growing
fast in Europe, Japan and other developed countries. Depending on the structure of themarket, and standards about heat pump water heater for energy-efficient performancestandardization is set by the local and national.
In Korea, heat pump water heater market began to be formed and exports are already being
made in some big companies such as LG, Samsung and Autech Carrier.

Figure 1. Installation of domestic air source heat pump water heater
How they work1

Heat pump water heaters use electricity to move heat from one place to another instead ofgenerating heat directly. Therefore, they can be two to three times more energy efficient thanconventional electric resistance water heaters. To move the heat, heat pumps work like a
refrigerator in reverse.
While a refrigerator pulls heat from inside a box and dumps it into the surrounding room, astand-alone air-source heat pump water heater pulls heat from the surrounding air and dumps
it - at a higher temperature - into a tank to heat water. You can purchase a stand-alone heatpump water heating system as an integrated unit with a built-in water storage tank andback-up resistance heating elements. You can also retrofit a heat pump to work with anexisting conventional storage water heater.
1

US DOE, http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/heat-pump-water-heaters~ １６ ~

Republic of KOREA

Heat pump water heaters require installation in locations that remain in the 4.4º–32.2ºC range
year-round and provide at least 28.3 cubic meters of air space around the water heater. Coolexhaust air can be exhausted to the room or outdoors. Install them in a space with excess
heat, such as a furnace room. Heat pump water heaters will not operate efficiently in a cold
space. They tend to cool the spaces they are in. You can also install an air-source heat pumpsystem that combines heating, cooling, and water heating. These combination systems pulltheir heat indoors from the outdoor air in the winter and from the indoor air in the summer.
Because they remove heat from the air, any type of air-source heat pump system works more
efficiently in a warm climate.
Homeowners primarily install geothermal heat pumps - which draw heat from the ground
during the winter and from the indoor air during the summer -- for heating and cooling theirhomes. For water heating, you can add a desuperheater to a geothermal heat pump system.
A desuperheater is a small, auxiliary heat exchanger that uses superheated gases from theheat pump's compressor to heat water. This hot water then circulates through a pipe to the
home's storage water heater tank.
Desuperheaters are also available for tankless or demand-type water heaters. In the summer,
the desuperheater uses the excess heat that would otherwise be expelled to the ground.
Therefore, when the geothermal heat pump runs frequently during the summer, it can heat allof your water.
During the fall, winter, and spring - when the desuperheater isn't producing as much excess
heat - you'll need to rely more on your storage or demand water heater to heat the water.
Some manufacturers also offer triple-function geothermal heat pump systems, which provide
heating, cooling, and hot water. They use a separate heat exchanger to meet all of ahousehold's hot water needs.

Figure 2. Basic cycle of refrigeration cycle for heat pump water heater
Market

The worldwide market for heat pump water heater is heating up recently. Sales of air to water
heat pumps were the fastest growing segment at a CAGR of 21.5% over 2007-2010, reaching~ １７ ~

Republic of KOREA

1.3 million units in 2010 from an estimated 730 thousand units in 2007. Further, volume salesof air to water heat pumps are likely to surpass the other heat pump categories by registeringa 2014-2020 compounded annual growth rate of 13.6% in some regions. 2
The significant change of the market is the continued boom of sanitary hot water or
cylinder-integrated air-to-water(ATW) heat pumps, whose sales continue to boom in France,
registering the highest growth of around 34% compared to 2011, with an estimated sales ofover 36,000 units in 2012. In Italy thanks to incentives and costs, the market registered its
biggest growth in Europe of about 113%, to reach around 9,000 units in 2012. Outside Europe,sales of cylinder-integrated units have expanded in the United States to reach over 12,500
units in 2012. As more manufacturers are increasingly distributing these units, the market islikely to continue growing at the same pace over the next 5 to 10 years.
Especially air-to-water (ATW) heat pumps are mostly used for generating hot water in China.
China’s ATW heat pump water heater market rose to RMB 4.8 billion (US$ 780 million) in
2012, growing by 10.5% over that of previous year. Recent years, ATW heat pump-basedheating is increasing. In 2012, more than 15 heat pump companies launched their ATW heatpumps for space heating.

Figure 3. Worldwide market of air-to-water heat pump water heater
Source : JRAIA, and JARN magazine

As a newcomer, South Korea also makes various efforts to expand the heat pump market.
Although the heat pump market continues to expand recently, domestic market is still staying
in the poor level. In domestic heating space market, residential gas or oil boilers haveaccounted for 60% traditionally, however the market of heaters using heat pump water heateris growing recently and it makes up a 140 million US$ market in 2012. Recently KEPCO3
has launched a new program to promote heat pump water heater with a thermal storage for
mid-night electric tariff program in order to replace the existing resistance electric heater,which can be expected to trigger a new market.
2

London, 2014, PR Newswire, Heat Pumps (Heating, Cooling and Hot Water) - A Global
Market Overview
3
KEPCO : The Korea Electric Power Corporation~ １８ ~

Republic of KOREA

Figure 4. Korean market of air-to-water heat pump water heater
Source : KRAIA

Products and Applications

In general, heat pumps can be classified into air-to-air, air-to-water, water-to-air, andwater-to-water system depending on heating medium type of heat source supply side andusing side. Of these, heat pump water heaters are classified as air-to-water andwater-to-water system as it can produce cold water and hot water at the same time. Heatpump water heaters can perform the role of cooler in summer, heater in winter, can cool andheat at the same time in condition where cooling and heating are required at the same timedepending on the configuration on the system, and also provides hot water at 4 seasons.
The leading manufactures in domestic heat pump water heater, secure related products andapplication technologies, and are at the stage of checking system applications of various
products, but related core technology and system integration technology developments are
required urgently for high-efficiency and optimal control of the system. Secure on system
optimization technology using variable capacity technology, system minimization technology
using advanced heat flow application technology, etc are possible. Also, intelligent controller
development for optimal operation of multi, hybrid products, development on intelligent
integrated management system technology and system distribution control using wirelesstechnology, are possible.
Currently the typical products are shown in Figure 5., where unitary HPWH may be designed
to be installed outside, inside or with ducted air, and heat exchanger may be wrap-around or
immersion coil and heat exchanger of split HPWH could be in tank or in evaporator unit.
Table 1. shows the characteristics of popular heat pump water heater, where we can findeach country and region has different application, temperature, and capacity for his market
demands. New product also provides space heating, sanitary hot water supply, and spacecooling simultaneously or separately (Figure 6).
In Korea market a high water temperature should be required because of a cold condition in
winter season, which allows to adopt cascade condenser to increase water temperature with

~ １９ ~

Republic of KOREA

two refrigeration cycles that use two different refrigerants are linked by a heat exchanger as
Figure 7.

Figure 5. Typical products (left, Unitary HPWH and right Split HPWH)

Table 1. Characteristics of popular heat pump water heater
Residential
Korea
Application

Japan

Space heating
Sanitary Hot water(50%),
Sanitary hot water(50%)

Commercial
EU
Space heating (80%),
Sanitary hot water(20%)

Sanitary Hot
water

Capacity

6 ~ 25 kW

4~6 kW (300~460L)

6 ~ 16 kW(3~6 kW resistanceheater)15~80 kW

Temperature~50oC (floor
heating),~65oC (hot wateror Radiator)

65oC ↑~40oC (floor heating),~65oC (hot water orRadiator)

70~80oCHigh
temperature

Cascade, R410A,
R134A

CO2 (90oC ↑)Backup heater or
R407C

CO2 (90oC ↑)~ ２０ ~

Republic of KOREA

Figure 6. Schematic diagram of new productFigure 7. Cascade cycle refrigeration
Standardization

The key energy efficiency advantage of heat pump water heaters (HPWHs) is their ability totransfer more energy to the hot water than the amount of electricity they consume, becausesome of the energy is extracted from the ambient heat source (usually air, water or the
ground).
The energy imparted to the water divided by the electrical energy consumed is generally
called the Coefficient of Performance (COP) or the Energy Factor (EF). For water heaters
both COP and EF are dimension-less quantities, because the numerator and the denominatorare calculated in energy units.
Conventional electric resistance water heaters cannot by definition have a COP over 1.0,
because all of the heat imparted to the hot water comes from an electric resistance element. A
well-designed HPWH should have a COP significantly higher than 1.0. However, HPWHs are
relatively complex systems, so testing and predicting their performance is not straightforward.

~ ２１ ~

Republic of KOREA

The overall energy efficiency can vary with the following:









the local climate where it is installed;
the temperature of the cold water supplied to the HPWH and of the hot waterproduced;
the performance of the heat pump/heat transfer system (compressor, evaporator,condenser and other components);
the heat loss of the storage tank;the quantity of hot water drawn off each day;the quantity and duration of each draw and the time intervals between draws;
the thermostat settings and the control strategy; andthe energisation profile, e.g. whether the heat pump can run at any time or whether itcannot run at certain times due to a restricted (off-peak) tariff.

The same HPWH can give very different COP values according to how it is tested and how
the results are calculated from the measurements. Some test standards only measure the
COP during the period when the unit first heats the water from cold, some take into accountthe COP during a series of physical draw-off and reheating cycles, and some take into
account the energy used to maintain the hot water at storage temperature during periods
when no hot water is being drawn off.
Currently some economies and regions have already developed standard for heat pumpwater heater, and are using to evaluate the performance of heat pump water heater. But, there
are a lot of different factors to evaluate energy efficiency. If there were no existing standards
for HPWHs, then the development of an international standard would itself constitute a
sufficient focus and stimulus for harmonisation.
The ideal way to avoid this would be to adopt a single common method of test. In June 2013,
TC86/SC6 of the International Standards Organisation (ISO) agreed in principle to develop a
new test standard for heat pump water heaters. The new project is being at ballot stage forapproving until 16 August 2014. If this ballot is approved, new working under TC86 SC6 will
be launched to develop a new standard.
Table 2. Overview of standards, MEPS and labelling for heat pump water heaters
Country/Economy
Test Standard (a)Physicaltesting

Derivation
COP/SCOP

Australia &Zealand (b)AS/NZS
5125.1-2010

No draw-off(e)Seasonal
Performancemodelled (but notreported as SCOP)
COP calculated

New

Canada (c)CSA-C745-03
China
GB/T23137/21362
Europe (b)EN 16147:2011

No draw-off

COP calculated

Requirements
instandard
itself (g)Proposedlabelling
standard underdevelopment
ProposedMEPS
under
development
Proposed – will
impact HPWHs
from April 2015
Yes

Draw-off

COP calculatedNo

Draw-off testunderdevelopment
Draw-offofEF calculated~ ２２ ~

Requirements
outside standard(h)Voluntary–eligibility
under
Renewable
Electricity Act

Voluntary – EnergyStar endorsement
energy label
No known programfor HPWHs
Voluntary – Top
Ten endorsement

Republic of KOREAJapan
JIS C 9220:2011
Korea (d)KS B 6410
USA (c)US
CodeofFederalRegulations
Title
10,
Part
430,
AppendixEtoSubpart B (CFR
430)
ISO

Draw-off

COP calculatedNo

No draw-off

SCOP calculatedNo

Draw-off

EF calculated

Proposed – will
impact HPWHs
from April 2015

Proposed–
mandatory energy
labelling and MEPS
TopRunnerstandards
No known programfor HPWHs
Mandatory–
EnergyGuide label
Voluntary – EnergyStar endorsement
energy label

Under
To be determinedTo
be To be determineddevelopment
determined(a ) See detailed descriptions in Appendix A. (b) Standard officially applies to two or more economies.
(c) Separate standards but essentially the same test (d) In draft – not yet published. (e) No draw-off
during testing. Load patterns are simulated in seasonal performance modelling. A revision of the test
standard is under way. It is planned to include draw-off tests for the purpose of determining minimum
energy performance (MEPS) levels. (g) Where energy labelling and/or MEPS are included in thestandard itself, so that products failing to meet those requirements are considered non-compliant withthe standard. (h) Where laws or regulations state that a product must be tested using a given standard,
but any MEPS and/or labelling requirements are in the regulations, and so can be altered withoutchanging the test standard.

Conclusion

While heat pump water heaters have been available for several decades, they are becoming
more popular as buyers increasingly factor energy efficiency into purchasing decisions, due torising electricity prices and awareness of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions fromenergy use. The most obvious benefit that homeowners can get from an air to water heatpump water heater is that obvious fact that they no longer have to install another system toheat water. They must also give a satisfactory supply of hot water without the user having to
wait an unacceptable time for reheats between draw-offs, and they need to be durable andquiet. Some designs trade off energy efficiency for functionality, e.g. by relying excessively on
resistance element boosting.
The energy-efficiency advantage of HPWHs over other forms of water heating is their main
selling point, so manufacturers have an incentive to claim the highest possible level of
efficiency (usually expressed in terms of ‘Coefficient of Performance’, or “Seasonal Coefficientof Performance). Several economies have developed tests to measure the COP, and somehave developed tests to measures the SCOP so that manufacturers can report values on aconsistent basis and their claims can be independently verified. Some of the test standards
incorporate other tests such as noise and the ability to deliver specified volumes of hot waterover specified periods.
We believe the heat pump market will grow through boiler replacement demands and it isexpected to have great market potential for industrial use as well as for residential use in the
future. Key alternative equipment of conventional boiler is heat pump water heater.
This paper presented a market situation of, product application of and standardization of heat~ ２３ ~

Republic of KOREA

pump water heater which is in the spotlight as an alternative to heating and supplying hot
water using the existing equipment used fossil fuel and resistance electric heater.
Reference

APEC CAST, 2013, “SEAD Analyzes Potentials for Heat Pump Water Heater International
Test Standard Alignment”
ICA report, 2013, “Market survey of heat pump system supporting business case for
efficiency-driven greenhouse gas mitigation in Korea”
KETEP, 2009.“Green Energy Strategic Roadmap for Heat pumps”, KETEP. Seoul, KOREA
EPA, 2009, “Energy Star Program Requirements for Residential Water Heaters: Partner
Commitments”, US Environmental Protection Agency
CHOI, Jun-Young, 2011."CO2 reduction impact by growing heat pump market”, Journal of
KSME, pp 45-48, Vol. 51, No. 5 May, Seoul, KOREA~ ２４ ~

VIETNAM

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF COMBINED SOLAR
THERMAL HEAT PUMP HOT WATER SYSTEMS
By An Nguyen and Luong Pham
Hanoi University of Science and Technology
Introduction
Solar domestic hot water systems are widely used due to their capability of saving energy. In
order to cope with the intermittent solar radiation on both seasonal and daily bases, they areusually combined with a conventional system that uses electrical energy or fossil fuel.
Recently, heat pump systems with the improvement of the efficiency, together with thedecrease in their cost are widely disseminated not only in air conditioning applications, butalso in applications such as drying or hot water production. Because a heat pump system canreduce the consumed energy to third or even to sixth, the use of heat pump as an auxiliary
energy source for solar domestic hot water system can achieve a significant energy saving.
Unfortunately, this kind of hot water system is still not widely spread. Therefore, solar
domestic hot water systems that use heat pump as back-up sources have been developed ina research project with the number sign of KC.05.03/11-15.
Target and scope of works
The KC.05.03/11-15 is a project funded by Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) ofVietnam that has the title of “Research and development of combined solar thermal heatpump hot water systems for Vietnam conditions”. The term of the project is from January of2012 to December of 2013.
Nowadays, regarding the combination between the heat pump and solar hot water system,
we often refer to two types of systems: integrated and combined. Integrated type is a system
in which the solar devices are integrated to the evaporators of heat pump devices. The heat
energy collected by the solar devices has the role of low-temperature heat source for the heatpump devices so the devices, both heat pump and solar, must work simultaneously. In thissense, the integrated type has another name of “Solar Assisted Heat Pump – SAHP”.
Because the solar energy can increase the temperature of the low-temperature heat source ofthe heat pump so that the heat pump is more efficient, this configuration is suitable for thecold-weather areas. In the hot-weather areas, the environment temperature (air, surface
water…) is high enough which is favorable for the working of most hot water heat pumps, thecombined type, with the sense that the heat pumps and the solar devices do not interact but
both supply heat to the storage tank, is more simple and more efficient in comparison with the
integrated type. Thus, in the KC.05.03 project, the combined type was selected to develop hot
water systems that both heat pump and solar device are applied.
In modern life, hot water is consumed more and more with approximately more than 90% of it
is used in buildings (hotel, apartment building…) and households. Therefore, two combined
systems were selected to develop in the KC.05.03/11-15 project: one for buildings and theother for households.
In order to disseminate these prototypes of the combined systems in future, beside withproducing two combined systems as mentioned above, the KC.05.03/11-15 project has~ ２５ ~

VIETNAM

following aims:- Study of heat pump technologies and combination methods between heat pumps
and solar hot water systems to select the best technology and best method for
producing the hot water heat pump units and then, combining them with solar hot
water systems in Vietnam.
- Develop a method accompanied by a set of tools to design any combined solar
thermal heat pump hot water system.
- Develop two prototypes of the combined solar thermal heat pump hot water
system: one for buildings and the other for households.
- Develop two prototypes of controller for combined solar thermal heat pump hot
water system, including control algorithm and software: one for buildings’ systems
and the other for households’ systems.
- Measure and analyze the working data of the 2 prototypes developed in the
project to show their capability in satisfying the loads (hot water demand), theirenergy efficiencies, as well as their capability in reducing the CO2 emission…
Results
Two combined system prototypes have been developed in the KC.05.03/11-15 project: the
30,000-liter system which is designed to provide hot water for a 255-room and 4-star hotel,
located at Nhatrang city of Vietnam; and the 250-liter system which is design to provide hotwater for 5-person household, located at Hanoi, Vietnam.
The schematic diagram of both the 30,000-liter and 250-liter systems is presented in Figure 1.
As shown in the figure, both solar collector(s) and hot water heat pump(s) are designed towork individually to produce hot water, which is stored in a unique storage tank. In case ofenough solar radiation for the hot water demand, only solar circulation pump(s) works totransport the absorbed heat (stored in the hot water in form of enthalpy) from the solar
collector(s) to the hot water storage tank. If the hot water demand is not adequately satisfied
by solar collector(s), the hot water heat pump(s) will be activated. A programmable logic
controller (PLC) with control software is also developed in this project to activate ON and OFF
the heat pump(s) based on the auxiliary heat required to meet the hot water load.

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the combined systems
The characteristics of the two prototypes of combined systems are represented inTable 1. As can be seen here, for both prototypes, the volumes of the hot water storage tankare higher than usual whereas the total heating capacities of the hot water heat pumps aremuch lower than that often applied for ordinary systems. Therefore, the maximum power~ ２６ ~

VIETNAM

consumptions are much lower than usual as can be seen in the table.

Item

Table 1. Characteristics of the prototypes of combined systems
30,000-liter
Parameter
Unit
250-liter systemsystem

1

Type of solar collectors-

Vacuum tube, 58 mm diameter and1750 mm length2

Numbers of collecting tubes and modules-

1350 and 27

20 and 1

3

Equivalent absorption
collectors (total)

m2

179

2.65

4

Type of hot water heat pump(s)-Air source heat pump5

Number of hot water heat pump units-

Total 5 units with 1 unit for standby

6

Total heating capacity of heat pump(s)

kW

100

0.95

7

Maximum power consumption based on the
power consumption of all installed devices

kW

35

0.4

-

For 255-room,
4-star hotel at
Nhatrang,
Vietnam

For 5-personhousehold at
Hanoi, Vietnam

8

area

of

solar

Hot water load

According to the data collected from the installed prototypes, both developed combined
systems can provide the amount of hot water enough for the design load at any condition all
year round. For the 30,000-liter system, the initial cost is about three times higher whereas
the annual power consumption, by estimation, is only tenth in comparison with the ordinary
hot water systems, in which the electrical resistance water heaters are equipped. Regarding
the 250-liter system, there is no comparison of initial cost because the small hot water heatpump with 950W of heating capacity, accompanied with the capability of working as the
back-up source for the solar hot water systems is not available in the market today. The
annual power consumption of the 250-liter system, also by estimation, is about 12% to 15% of
the one of the ordinary systems.
Conclusions
The research and development of two combined solar thermal heat pump hot water systems
for Vietnam weather conditions have been completed in the research project with the number
sign of KC.05.03/11-15. The data collected from the prototypes of the two combined systems
shows that they can meet the hot water demand of design load at any condition all year roundin Vietnam. Due to the significant energy saving capability of both heat pump and solar
devices, the annual power consumption of the two prototypes are much lower than those of
the conventional electrical resistance heater systems, about 10% and from 12% to 15% for
30,000-liter and 250-liter systems, respectively. It should be noted here that the 30,000-liter
system prototype is designed for the buildings in Vietnam that consume about 30% ofelectrical energy to produce hot water. Thus, significant energy saving, followed by CO2emission and electrical peak load reductions can be achieved if the combined solar thermalheat pump hot water systems are widely disseminated for the buildings.

~ ２７ ~

JapanCurrent Status of Energy Saving Policy on Air
Conditioners and Building up of Air Conditioner
Performance Testing Facilities in Asian Countries
Ryota Hirata
Japan Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Testing Laboratory, Japan
Abstract: With growing global awareness of energy saving in recent years, the fast-growing
Asian countries are actively introducing the MEPS, labeling systems and others for home
appliance products including air conditioners in order to curtail energy consumptions thatgrow year by year. For ensuring effectiveness of such energy saving schemes, performance
testing facilities are required to accurately measure the product performance. However, it isimportant for creation of such energy saving schemes to introduce not only necessary
facilities but also many processes including calibration of measuring instruments and mutual
calibration with external organizations. A third party air conditioner performance testinglaboratory, JATL has been ensuring a steady implementation of its efforts based on
ISO/IEC17025 and has maintained high accuracy and reliability. Moreover, JATL periodically
implements mutual calibration with testing facilities of domestic air conditioner manufacturers
as well as overseas national level testing laboratories. In the future, through JATL’s technicalassistance for the yet-to-be-built testing laboratories in Asian countries, we believe that
contribution to improve reliability of performance testing in energy saving systems in eachnation will prove to be mutually beneficial.
Introduction
While assuming responsibility for testing through purchasing the products in the market in the
air conditioner performance verification system in Japan, JATL grants certification to the
manufacturers’ testing facilities through mutual calibration, etc. and serves as Japan’s
standard laboratory for performance testing of air conditioners. Also, in recent years, JATL
has been responsible for mutual calibration, Round Robin Test, technical training, etc., which
are conducted jointly with the national laboratories in Asian countries, as part of a project of
the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to assist the creation of energy saving
schemes. Through this project, the authors have visited the national laboratories in Asian
countries to witness mutual calibration tests and undertake trainings on testing methods, etc.
Most of the countries being assisted by us are in the process of building performance testinglaboratories, in order to respond to the obligatory energy saving schemes for air conditioners
such as MEPS and labeling and increased testing man-hours in conjunction with adoption of
new international standards.
Current status of energy saving policy on air conditioners and performance testing in
Asian countries
Table 1 summarizes the current status of energy saving policy on air conditioners in Asian~ ２８ ~

Japancountries. As shown in this Table, many countries adopt the obligatory certification systems
for air conditioner performance. In addition, most of them have adopted or will adopt in the
coming years seasonal energy efficiency ratio such as APF and CSPF (ISO 16358) as thecriteria for judging energy efficiency. These are believed to aim at not only eliminating lessenergy efficient products but also increasing further the market share of inverter air
conditioners (that are superior to a fixed capacity air conditioners in efficiency at a partial load),which are increasing their shares in Asian countries in recent years, through labeling withevaluating their energy saving features properly, thus curtailing total energy consumptions.
On the other hand, for effective functioning of such energy saving policy (MEPS and labelingprogram), highly accurate and reliable performance testing facilities are required. In
particular, for calculation of seasonal energy efficiency ratio, measurement of half-load
performance is necessary, in addition to the existing measurement of rated performance(capacity and energy consumptions), hence, shortage of testing facilities becomes apparent
as testing man-hours increase. Table 2 shows the current status and problems in
implementing air conditioner performance test in Asian countries. This represents the resultof hearing survey by the authors from the managers of the national testing laboratories in
Asian countries at the time of visiting there. This finds that many countries are actively
introducing performance testing facilities to respond to an increased number of necessary
tests due to introduction of MEPS and labeling programs. Also, at the laboratories where
testing facilities are already in place, most of them were installed in recent years, therefore,
shortage of testing experience becomes a problem. Measuring the performance of air
conditioners is not as simple as measuring the length or weight of a certain object. It
requires measuring various physical quantities after bringing enough stability in environmental
conditions such as temperature and humidity and then making calculations based on suchmeasurements. Thus, a certain extent of complexity exists. For acquisition of highly
accurate results, each physical quantity needs to be measured with a high degree of accuracy,
which can be achieved through periodic calibration and maintenance. Furthermore, not only
the hardware such as each measuring instrument and the entire facility but also software suchas staff members capable of handling them properly and their operation is a very importantfactor. In the following sentences, we explain these points based on the examples of JATL.
Table 1: Situation of energy saving measures for air conditioners in Asian countries
Country Evaluation standards in MEPS and labeling Response to seasonal energy
programs
efficiency ratio
Type of air Judgment method
conditioners
APF already adopted (2006 -)*Labeling under Top runner
Japan ALL
APF
program (not MEPS)
Start of study on adoption of ISO
A
ALL
EER
16358
Fixed
EER
Start of study on adoption of ISO
B
16358
Inverter
Weighted EER
Fixed
EER
ISO 16358 already adopted
C
Inverter
CSPF(ISO16358)
Fixed
EER
Start of study on adoption of ISO
D
16358
Inverter(No Regulation)~ ２９ ~

JapanE
F

Fixed
Inverter
Fixed
Inverter

EER
Weighted EER
EER
EER
&
Weighted(combination)

G

ALL

EER

H

ALL
Fixed
Inverter

APF(ISO16358)
EER
APF

I

Planned study on adoption of ISO
16358
Planned study on adoption of ISO
EER 16358
Planned study on adoption of ISO
16358
ISO 16358 already adopted
APF already adopted

In preparation for adoption of
CSPF (In the process of soliciting
public comments)
EER: Energy Efficiency Ratio = Total cooling capacity / power input
Weighted EER = 0.4 x “EER at full load” + 0.6 x “EER at half load”
CSPF: Cooling Seasonal Performance Factor
APF: Annual Performance Factor
J

ALL

EER

Table 2: Outline of major air conditioner testing laboratories and facilities in Asian
countries
Count Item
Current problems, etc.
ry
Testing-A Balanced ambient room-type calorimeter and an air enthalpy test
facilities
method are already in place, but as a general rule, the calorimeterJapan
is used for certification tests. (enthalpy type is used only forheating low temperature condition.)-A new facility (balanced ambient room-type calorimeter) is planned
to be installed.
Test workload-The number of tests is appropriate at present.
Skill
and -With over 30 years’ experience of joint establishment of testing
experience
technology with domestic air conditioner manufacturers, problems
in terms of accuracy or technical capability are few.
ISO/IEC17025 -ISO/IEC 17025 certified-Management work including maintenance and calibration is carriedout properly and smoothly.
-Experience of mutual calibration with domestic manufacturers andoverseas ISO/IEC17025 certified laboratories is sufficient.
Testing-Balanced ambient room-type calorimeters and air enthalpy test
facilities
methods are already in place, but the calorimeters are used forAcertification tests.
-A new facility (balanced ambient room-type calorimeter) is planned
to be installed.
Test workload-As the number of tests becomes huge due to a large number ofdomestic manufacturers, testing facilities become short in somecases.
Skill
and -With years of experience as a testing laboratory, problems in terms
experienceof accuracy or technical capability are few.
ISO/IEC17025 -ISO/IEC 17025 certified~ ３０ ~

JapanB

Testingfacilities
Test workload
Skill
and
experience
ISO/IEC17025

C

Testingfacilities
Test workload

Skill
and
experience
ISO/IEC17025

D

Testingfacilities
Test workload

Skill
and
experience
ISO/IEC17025

E

Testingfacilities
Test workload
Skill
and
experience
ISO/IEC17025-Management work including maintenance and calibration is carriedout properly and smoothly.
-A problem to be solved is less experience in mutual calibration withother testing laboratories.
-A balanced ambient room-type calorimeter and an air enthalpy test
method are already in place. (All of them were constructed inrecent years.)-Testing facilities become short in some cases, as tests are carriedout in a highly tight schedule after the start of energy saving
schemes. (There exists only one testing laboratory.)-There is insufficient experience at present, due to a small numberof years from facility introduction.
-Aim at obtaining ISO/IEC 17025 certification. (Expansion of
applicable scope)-Insufficient management work including maintenance andcalibration is a challenge to be solved, as the facilities are new.
-An air enthalpy test method is already in place.
-A new facility is planned to be installed.
-Since energy saving schemes are not in operation in fact, there isno any particular test at present. But with start of such schemes,
testing facilities would possibly become short due to a sharp
increase in the number of tests.
-While a few years have passed since introduction of the existing
facility, there is insufficient experience due to a small number oftests.
-ISO/IEC 17025 certified (expansion of applicable scope)-Insufficient management work including maintenance andcalibration is a challenge to be solved, as the facilities are new.
-An air enthalpy test method is already in place.
-There are several plans for new laboratory construction.
-The number of tests is appropriate at present, but testing facility
would possibly become short due to an increase in the number of
products to be regulated. (There is only one testing laboratory inoperation.)-There is insufficient experience at present, due to a small numberof years from facility introduction.
-Aim at obtaining ISO/IEC 17025 certification. (Expansion of
applicable scope)-Insufficient management work including maintenance andcalibration is a challenge to be solved, as the facility is new.
-A calibrated room-type calorimeter is already in place.
-There are several plans for construction of balanced ambientroom-type calorimeters.
-As the number of tests becomes large, testing facilities become
short in some cases. (There is only one testing facility inoperation.)-Experience is sufficient with high skill.
-ISO/IEC 17025 certified-A problem is difficulty in maintenance and calibration by the~ ３１ ~

JapanF

Testingfacilities

Test workload

Skill
and
experience
ISO/IEC17025

laboratory, as technical details of the facilities are concealed bymanufacturers.
-A balanced ambient room-type calorimeter and air enthalpy test
methods are already in place. Both of them can be used for
certification.
-There is only one balanced ambient room-type calorimeter
introduced in recent years and others are air enthalpy test
methods.
-Since there are three testing laboratories in the country, there isslightly excessive capacity available. But testing facilities would
possibly become short due to an increased man-hour after
introduction of new standard (CSPF).
-There is a certain level of experience in air enthalpy test method,but experience in balanced ambient room-type calorimeter isinsufficient.
-There are facilities which obtained ISO/IEC 17025 certification andfacilities which are planned to obtain ISO/IEC 17025 certification.
-While calibration and maintenance are conducted by thelaboratory, such work seems insufficient in some aspects.

Outline of air conditioner performance testing facilities
1) Outline
As testing facilities, a balanced ambient room-type calorimeter or an air enthalpy test method
is used in many cases. Fig. 1 indicates the schematic views of these facilities. Also, Table
3 shows the comparison of them.

Balanced ambient room-type calorimeterAir enthalpy test method

Figure 1: Examples of air conditioner performance testing facilities
2) Balanced ambient room-type calorimeter
A layer of air surrounds both a room for indoor units and a room for outdoor units. The layerof air is controlled to be at the same temperature as that of both rooms, so that leakage ofheat to (or intrusion of heat into) the environs through wall surface is prevented. This is thelargest characteristics of a balanced ambient room-type calorimeter. For your information, acalorimeter without a layer of air is called as a calibrated room-type calorimeter. In an facility
with such calorimeter, the capacity of a sample machine (air conditioner) is balanced with thecapacity of the facility to keep the temperature and humidity conditions of both the room for~ ３２ ~

Japanindoor units and the room for outdoor units and the capacity of the facility at that time isregarded as the capacity of a sample machine (air conditioner). For example, in a coolingmode, a heater and a humidifier of the facility is controlled to balance with the cooling andhumidifying capacity of a sample machine and a total sum of electricity used by the heater,
humidifier and other devices such as blower fan and electric lamp is regarded as a cooling
capacity of a sample machine.
3) Air enthalpy test method
In a state that intake temperature and humidity of a sample machine are stable under thetesting conditions, an air flow volume of a sample machine is obtained from such data as adifferential pressure at a nozzle section of an air flow meter and the conditions of passing air
flow (temperature, specific volume). Also, each specific enthalpy is obtained fromtemperature and humidity of air at intake and outlet of a sample machine and an atmosphericpressure and then the capacity of air conditioner is obtained through multiplying a differencein specific enthalpy between intake and outlet by mass air flow rate.
Table 3: Comparison of air conditioner performance testing facilities✔: Excellent point
Item
Balancedambient
room-typeAir enthalpy test method
calorimeter
Facility cost
-As the room has double wall,-Enthalpy method is generally lessbalanced ambient room-type
expensive than calorimeter type.
✔
calorimeter is generally more
expensive than enthalpy method.
Measureme-Balanced
ambient
room-type-Many factors including duct,nt accuracy
calorimeterisgenerallynozzle, etc. are involved in air✔
considered better than enthalpy
flow measurement. (There aremethod.
many factors of uncertainty.)
Measureme-Test period of balanced ambient-Air flow meters are smaller andnt timeroom-type calorimeter is longer
more excellent in thermal stability
than that of enthalpy method. ✔
compared to respective rooms of(A certain period of time iscalorimeter type.
required to be stable.)
Measurable-Measurement of large capacity-A wide range of air flow (capability)
capacity
products is difficult because of
can be responded by changing
temperature
distribution.
nozzle diameter in air flow✔
(Facility cost is a problem.)meters.
(Employ enthalpy method is mainly
used for large air conditioners.)
Load-If loads in a sample machine-Load following capability is good,followingchange,thermalbalancesince operating conditions of a✔
capability
becomes unstable, requiring asample machine have a limited
longer time to be stable.
effect on temperature control.
Testing-Installation work is easier than that-As connection work by using ducts
work
for enthalpy method and factors
is required, installation work is✔
that have an effect on installation
more difficult than calorimeterwork are few.
type.
Facility-Adjustment work to keep balance-Operation is relatively easy, since
operationon the facility side may be ✔
operating conditions of a sample
necessarydependingonmachine have a smaller effect on~ ３３ ~

JapanMaintenanceoperating conditions of a sample
machine.
-Maintenance work is slightly easierthan that for enthalpy method but✔ there is no large difference in
man-hours.

temperature
controlthancalorimeter type.
-The number of instruments islarger than that of calorimeter
type and thenumber of
man-hours is slightly larger. (It is
more expensive as well.)4) Testing facility for air conditioner performance verification system in Japan
Under the air conditioner performance verification system in Japan, all qualification tests are
performed by JATL. As the testing facility for this purpose, a balanced ambient room-type
calorimeter, which is superior in terms of accuracy, is basically used for small air conditioners
for home use. Only for the conditions of heating in lower temperatures with large fluctuation
in load due to defrosting operation, an air enthalpy test method that is superior in load
following is employed. Also, air conditioners for commercial use that have too large
capacities for calorimeters to measure are tested with employing only an enthalpy method(see Table 4).
Table 4: Testing facilities for air conditioner performance verification system in Japan
Product
Test item
Facility
Measurable range
category
Small
air Standard cooling conditions
Balanced
Cooling: 0.9 conditioners(rated/ half load)ambient
11.6kW(for residential Standard heating conditions
room-typeHeating: 0.9 use)
(rated/ half load)
calorimeter
12.8kW
Low temperature heating conditions
Air
enthalpy(Cooling: 0.0 test method
10.0kW)
Heating: 0.0 13.0kW
Large
air All items
Air
enthalpy
Cooling: 2.0 conditioners
test method56.0kW(for
Heating: 2.0 commercial
67.0kWuse)
As described above, we employ several forms of air conditioner performance testing facilities
with each having different characteristics and it is important for all facilities to conduct
appropriately and continuously calibration and maintenance of each measuring instrument
and the entire facility.
Calibration of performance testing facilities
1) Calibration of measuring instruments
As described above, the performance of air conditioners is obtained through calculation froma variety of factors such as temperature, humidity, pressure and electricity. Accordingly, inorder to obtain correct results, calibration of the instruments for measuring various factors isnecessary for ensuring appropriate measurement values. Moreover, it is important that thecalibration has traceability to the national standard. Calibration of measuring instruments
and traceability are described as requirements in Section 5.6 of ISO/IEC 17025. At JATL,
each measuring instrument undergoes calibration by JATL’s reference standard (that is not~ ３４ ~

Japanused in regular tests) at the time of an annual comprehensive maintenance. The reference
standard is calibrated by the ISO/IEC 17025 certified calibration organization and has
traceability to the national standard. This external calibration is performed once a year as
well. Also, at the time of this external calibration, a calibration certificate with a statement of
uncertainty in measurement is issued in principle and such uncertainty is used for calculationof uncertainty of each measuring instrument. In addition, internal calibration at JATL is not
implemented solely by each measuring instrument. Calibration is implemented in a range
from measuring instruments installed in a laboratory to their indicated parts as a whole. Fig.
2 shows the traceability diagram of measuring instruments (excerpt) at JATL.

National standard

ISO/IEC 17025 certified calibration organization (JCSS calibration, etc.)

External calibration (once a year)*Issuance of calibration certificate with a statement of uncertainty in measurement

In-house
standard

Quartzreference

Precision power
analyzer

Digital manometer

Calibration at JATL (once a year)
For measurement

Pt100.RTD

Digital power

Digital pressure transmitter

Coriolis mass flow meter

Figure 2: Traceability diagram of measuring instruments (excerpt) at JATL
2) Quality control of test results of testing facilities by comprehensive calibration
Calibration of individual measuring instrument mentioned above is insufficient for an air
conditioner performance testing facilities. It is because the finally sought values of capacity
or power consumptions of air conditioners may vary, due to various factors such as heatleakage from an air receiving chamber or the rooms for indoor or outdoor units, temperature
distribution, etc., in addition to individual measuring instruments. Accordingly, it is necessary
to confirm periodically that performance values finally sought are appropriate by implementing
measurement of air conditioner performance. Quality assurance of the results is mentioned
in Section 5.9 of ISO/IEC 17025.

~ ３５ ~

Japana) Repeat tests by in-house calibrator
This is a method to measure an in-house calibrator (air conditioner) once a year and identify
changes in performance values. The points in this test are shown in Table 5. At JATL, after
completion of calibration of each measuring instrument and maintenance of the whole
facilities implemented at an annual comprehensive maintenance, tests of both a balanced
ambient room-type calorimeter and an air enthalpy test method are conducted. This also
serves as mutual calibration among in-house testing facilities.
Table 5: Points of repeat test by in-house calibrator
Point
ReasonTests should be conducted by multiple To determine whether it is an anomaly of
calibrators.
calibrator itself or testing facility.
Respective calibrators should have To cover the measurement range of testing
different capacity.
facility.
Respective calibrators should properly be To exclude an effect of changes instored and renewed in about a five-year performance due to deterioration of calibrator
interval.
itself.
Test results should be shown graphically. To grasp the trend for easier anomaly
detection.
b) Mutual calibration or Round Robin Test with external testing organizations
JATL implements comparison with external testing organizations through the methods shown
below.
b-1) Round Robin Test in rotation with KRAAC of South Korea
KOREA Refrigeration and Assessment Center (KRAAC) of South Korea, which is operated by
Korea Energy Management Corporation (KEMCO) under the Ministry of Trade, Industry andEnergy, is a designated test center under the air conditioner certification system. It is an
ISO/IEC 17025 certified center. JATL has signed a technical tie-up contract with KRAAC andhas performed a Round Robin Test in rotation every four years to mutually validate the results.
b-2) Periodic mutual calibration with domestic air conditioner manufacturers
A voluntary air conditioner performance verification system run by the Japan Refrigeration
and Air Conditioning Industry Association (JRAIA) consists of testing conducted by JATL
through purchasing the products in the market and voluntary verification testing conducted byeach air conditioner manufacturer. To ensure that voluntary qualification testing conductedby each manufacturer be implemented appropriately under the system, mutual calibration withthe testing facility of manufacturers is conducted (every two years in principle). Under thisqualification system, JATL’s testing facility is called as “(performance) standard” and eachmanufacturer’s testing facility is called as “quasi standard.” Also, each manufacturer
conducts mutual calibration between its other testing facility (manufacturer’s facilities) and thequasi standard registered with the verification system, which results in realizing calibration
between the Japanese manufacturers’ performance testing facilities and JATL’s testing facility.
The outline of verification system is shown in Fig. 3, while the scheme of quasi standard
certification is shown in Fig. 4.

~ ３６ ~

JapanPost verification results on website(information disclosure)Contract for commissioning

JRAIA
Registration ofverification
membersverification work
Report of results

Permission for
putting
verification seal

Air conditioner
manufacturer

Decision to pass or
fail qualification

Results ofperformance
test

Quasi standard
Registered at JRAIA
Testing facility

JATL

Performanceverification test
(JATL’s standard)MarketPurchasing
in market

Quasi standard
test

Figure. 3: Outline of air conditioner qualification system in Japan

manuf.’s facility#1

Air conditioner
manuf. B

Air conditioner
manuf. A

manuf.’s facility#2

manuf.’s facility#2…

Quasi-Standard
facility

manuf.’s facility#x

manuf.’s facility#1…

In-house
mutualcalibration

Air conditioner
manuf. X

manuf.’s facility#2
Quasi-Standard
facility

manuf.’s facility#1

Quasi-Standard
facility

manuf.’s facility#x

Mutualcalibration
Standard testing
facility(JATL)
Mutualcalibration…

…

Air conditioner
manuf. C

manuf.’s facility#1
manuf.’s facility#2

Quasi-Standard
facility…
manuf.’s facility#x

manuf.’s facility#x

Quasi standard certification standard (any of the following)- En value ≦ 1*In case that there is an uncertainty in
manufacturer’s facility- Deviation ≦ ±3%

Figure 4: Scheme of quasi standard certification in verification system~ ３７ ~

Japanb-3) Mutual calibration with overseas performance testing laboratories/Round Robin Test
In addition to mutual calibration with KRAAC of South Korea, JATL has conducted mutual
calibration testing with overseas performance testing laboratories through various projects.
In these projects, not only comparison of testing results but also researches on facilities,
testing methods, management status, etc. have been conducted. In particular, under the
projects of METI designed to assist Asian countries in their efforts to create energy saving
schemes (“Project of Research on Providing Assistance to the Efforts of Creating the Base for
Diffusion of Energy Saving, etc.” and “Project to Provide Assistance to the Efforts of Creating
S&L Scheme in Developing Nations”), we are able to have detailed understanding of thesituations on overseas performance testing laboratories through mutual calibration with themand provision of technical assistance to them. Table 6 below shows the records of tests
conducted with overseas performance testing laboratories.
Table 6: Records of mutual calibration tests with overseas performance testinglaboratories
Time period
Project
Country (laboratory)
Items implemented
1997, 2002 and Overseas WG of JRAIA
United States (Intertek)
Mutual calibration
2010
test
2003
South Korea (KRAAC) and Round Robin Test
Spain (CEIS)
2008 and 2009
Spain (CEIS)
Mutual calibration
test
2006
Australia (UNSW)
Mutual calibration
test
2003, 2007, 2010 Comparison of testing South Korea (KRAAC)
Round Robin Testand 2013
laboratories
undertechnical tie-up contract
2011
Project
toProvide China (CVC)
Mutual calibration
Assistance to the Efforts
testof
Creating
S&L
Scheme2012
China (CVC, CHEARI)
Round Robin Test
in Developing Nations(METI)
2012
Project of Research on Thailand (EEI), Malaysia Mutual calibration
Providing Assistance to (SIRIM QAS), Indonesia test and technicalthe Efforts of Creating (B4T) and Vietnam (TVCI)
assistancethe Base for Diffusion of Thailand (EEI), Malaysia Mutual calibration2013 and 2014
EnergySaving,etc. (SIRIM QAS), Indonesia testor
Round
(METI)(B4T) and the Philippines Robin Test and(OSSI-STL)
technical
assistance~ ３８ ~

JapanFacility maintenance1) Outline
For the purpose of keeping the conditions of test facilities, JATL implements calibration ofeach measuring instrument and mutual calibration of facilities as described before andconducts daily and annual inspections for the purpose of keeping the conditions of the entire
facilities.
2) Importance of self-performed maintenance
These maintenance activities are performed by the testing personnel themselves at JATL to
the extent technically feasible. Conducting maintenance activities by the testing personnel
themselves is aimed at not only enhancing understanding of the facilities and testing
technique as well as improving their skills of detecting and correcting failures at an early stage
at the occasion of daily testing, but also at enhancing their abilities to make proposals properly
for future testing methods and improvement of the facilities.
3) Routine inspection
Routine inspection, for example, to find out unusual sound at each section of facilities orloosened belts, is carried out to check the conditions of facilities to ensure them to function
normally and the results are posted.
An interval of inspection differs by item
(daily/weekly/monthly). Table 7 below shows an example of inspection items and inspection
cycles. Fig. 5 shows the status of posting the routine inspection sheet at JATL.
Table 7: Example of routine inspection items
Inspection
Confirmation item
Inspection
item
cycle
AHU blower
Unusual sound
Daily
Humidifier
Unusual water level
Daily
Thermometer
Water level of wet bulb
Daily
V beltLooseness
and Monthly
damageRefrigerator
Unusual sound
Daily
OperatingPressure(highWeeklypressureof pressure and low
refrigerator
pressure
withinnormal range)
Electronic
Existenceor
Daily
force balancenonexistenceofoverflow
Surrounding
Housekeeping
Daily
environment

Fig. 5: Posting of routine inspection sheet(at entrance of experiment room)4) Annual inspection
For overall inspection of the facilities, annual inspection is implemented every year for aduration of about two months. In the first month, the facilities stop their operation completely
to enable inspection and maintenance. After completion of them (after restoration of the
facility), the second month is used for comprehensive calibration and measurement of heatleakage. The major items implemented at the annual inspection are as follows:~ ３９ ~

Japan

・
・
・
・
・
・
・
・

In-house calibration of each measuring instrument (Pt sensors, mercury thermometers,
power meters, etc.)
External calibration of each measuring instrument and a reference standard (quartz
thermometers, fine pressure difference meters, flowmeters, etc.)
Inspection and cleaning of humidifiers, cooling towers, etc.
Measurement of insulation resistance of each section of the facilities
In-house calibration tests using heater calibrator and repeat test unit (air conditioner forcalibration)
Measurement of heat leakage of a balanced ambient room-type calorimeter
Measurement of heat leakage of an air receiving chamber of an air enthalpy test method
Confirmation of measurement programs (version check by external organizations)Though the annual inspection is significant both in terms of period and cost, it is important for
testing laboratories (facilities) to maintain reliability and cannot be omitted.
Monitoring of effectiveness of tests
For control of testing accuracy, JATL keeps a record of results of particularly important items
shown below. Also, if analysis of the results finds out any anomalies, the operation of thedevices (or the facilities) in question will be stopped for investigation to determine the cause.
The monitoring items and frequency are shown in Table 8 below.
Table 8: Monitoring items regarding effectiveness of tests
Monitoring item
Content
Monitoring of effectiveness of Pt Compare
temperature
measurement
sensors
results
byacalibrated
mercury
thermometer with the measurement results(indicatedvaluesofmeasurement
computers) by a Pt sensor.
Confirmation of reproducibility by Install a heater calibrator, implement
heater calibrator
heating capacity test, and compare theratio of electricity consumptions to heating
capacity of the heater calibrator with theresult in the past.
Confirmation of reproducibility by Implement cooling capability test by using
in-house
calibrator(air in-house calibrator and make comparison
conditioner)
with the result in the past.
Confirmation of heat balance of Monitor the ratio of capacity determined onindoor units and outdoor units
indoor side to capacity determined on
outdoor side (heat balance of indoor units
and outdoor units).
Record of wet bulb wick Use wet bulb wick with a proper diameter
replacement
for thermometer, which is appropriately be
degreased for use in measurement.
Inspect filth on wet bulb tray at the sametime. Keep a record of wick replacement.

~ ４０ ~

Frequency
At
each
test

Once
year

a

Once
year

a

At
test

each

Each
sample air
conditioner

JapanStandardization of testing work
In undertaking air conditioner performance test, calibration and maintenance of the facilities
are important as noted above, and actual measurement work must be highly reproducible.
The followings are the matters necessary for reproducibility.
1) Development of testing personnel
Development of the personnel responsible for testing (testing personnel) is one of the mostimportant factors for ensuring high reproducibility in testing results. At JATL, the personnel
undergo education and training under the development program as shown in Fig. 6, and only
the members who have knowledge and skills necessary for conducting tests are allowed to be
involved in testing duties.
(External lecture, etc.)

ISO17025

OJT(test work assistance)
Acquisition of external
qualifications- Electrical engineer- Refrigerant recovery- Forklift, welding,etc.

- Refrigeration supervisor

Productknowledge

Expertise

Practical testing duty
Appointment of specifictesting personnel

SafetyeducationBasicknowledgeof electricity

Basic knowledge ofrefrigeration andair conditioning

Appointment of testing personnel

Basic knowledgeof refrigeration
andair conditioning

Qualifying test for testing personnel

Introductory
Education

Appointment of test assistants

Entry into laboratory(In-house education)

Specific duties(instrument
calibration, etc.)(About one year)

Figure 6: Testing personnel development scheme at JATL
2) Production of testing manuals
At JATL, in order to prevent variations in work of testing personnel, tests are performed basedon their own manuals. The manuals have been produced in cooperation with the engineers
at air conditioner manufacturers, who have been the members of JRAIA-hosted “Room Air
Conditioner Inspection Technique Committee.” The content of the manuals is based
primarily on the testing standards (ISO 5151 or JIS B8615-1) and detailed testing methods
that are not specified in these standards are set forth in line with the facilities of JATL. Also,
when the testing standards for reference are revised, the manuals will be revised accordingly.
The manuals are translated into various foreign languages through a METI project to assist
creation of energy-saving schemes, which are utilized in technical training provided by JATL in
this project (see Fig. 7).

~ ４１ ~

Japan(Japanese edition)(English edition)

Figure. 7: JATL performance test manual
Uncertainty in measurement
In accordance with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025 (Section 5.4.6), JATL estimates andcalculates uncertainty in performance measurement. In addition, obtained uncertainty(relative uncertainty) is set forth in the test reports.
Regarding the method to estimate and calculate uncertainty, based on the guideline “JABNOTE 6” published by a public interest incorporated foundation, Japan Accreditation Board
and ISO technical specifications “ISO/TS 16491,” the JATL-hosted “The Society for the Studyof Laboratory Uncertainties” established the method after discussion among the engineers of
air conditioner manufacturers in Japan. The calculation method is shared among therespective manufacturers and the uncertainty values calculated with the standard common to
the manufacturers are utilized to judge En value at the time of mutual calibration.
Also, estimation and calculation of such uncertainty deepen understanding of the error factors
in the measurement of each measuring instrument and the entire facility thus contributing to
the improvement of the facilities toward high precision.
Conclusion
Measurement of air conditioner performance is a complicated task, which consists ofcombination of various factors, and in order to obtain highly precise and reproducible results,
calibration of each measuring instrument, maintenance of facilities and training of thepersonnel are important as described above. Moreover, in order to improve the reliability ofmeasurement results, it is essential to prove appropriateness by continuously implementing
mutual calibration with other reliable testing organizations and Round Robin Tests.

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JapanOn the other hand, in recent years in Asian countries, development of performance testing
facility has been in progress, in conjunction with the introduction of energy saving policies
such as MEPS and labelling programs, however, it is not an easy task and takes long time tobuild reliable air conditioner testing facilities as described above. A central performance
testing body to support the air conditioner qualification system in Japan, JATL is a reliable
testing organization with steadily continuing efforts to realize high accuracy and continuously
conducting mutual calibration with domestic air conditioner manufacturers. In the future, we
believe that JATL’s contribution in the improvement of accuracy and reliability of theperformance testing organizations in each country through technical assistance, mutual
calibration, etc. will bring mutual benefits to Japan as well as the entire Asian region.
References
ISO/IEC17025:2005 “General requirements for the competence of testing and calibrationlaboratories”
ISO16358:2013 “Air-cooled air conditioners and air-to-air heat pumps - Testing andcalculating methods for seasonal performance factors.”
IS-INOTEK and JEMA March 2014. “Progress report on FY2013 / Project of Research on
Providing Assistance to the Efforts of Creating the Base for Diffusion of Energy Saving, etc. ”
JATL January 2014. “The current situation and future direction of performance tests for heatpump devices” HVAC & R JAPAN2014 Presentation document~ ４３ ~

IndiaRole of Heat Pump in Environmental Protection
Pradeep Kumar, Tarun Garg
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), India
Introduction
The Northeast states of India are the eastern-most region of India connected to East India via
a narrow corridor squeezed between Nepal and Bangladesh. The key development issues
and challenges are basically backward rural areas, poor connectivity within the states andwith rest of India, lack of industrialization, accelerated growth rate of urban centres andenvironmental protection. These states are power deficit in spite of huge potential for hydropower generation but majority of rural and semi urban areas because of its difficult terrain are
not connected to grid and these areas would remain off grid in future as well.
The few identified actions to provide appropriate solution to challenges are construction of
educational, health centres, housing in the urban areas as well as in remote areas,development of tourism infrastructure and to generate employment and income for people
living below poverty line and for unemployed youths.
The climate of these states could be described as cold as per climate classification by
National Building Code (NBC-2005) of India. These states experience mild to severe winterfor longer duration and mild summer for short duration.
In several parts which are at high altitude heating is predominantly required and where as inother parts like heating along with cooling is required. For heating, people in remote areas ofNorth eastern region burn forest waste which is abundantly available. This burning of forest
waste leads to carbon emission. The energy requirements required for heating spaces forproviding thermal comfort and lighting are rapidly increasing due to high growth rate ofdevelopment process. The key environmental issues in these areas are burning of twigs forheating which leads to deforestation and formation of carbon layer in atmosphere to pollute air
and adds to global warming.
In order to combat this carbon emission generation due to burning of forest waste, low energy
heating/cooling system or heating/cooling systems integrated with Renewable energy needs
to be explored. With this objective in mind, a feasibility study for Geothermal based heat pumpintegrated with Solar Photovoltaic system was carried out in one of these states and a pilot
project to demonstrate this model has already been started.
Proposed System for Pilot Project
The pilot project is designed for a space having day time occupancy and of the size of 51 ft*21 ft * 12 ft.

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IndiaThe proposed system would include Geo source Heat Pump (GSHP) for providing heating
and cooling, geo-exchange system for cooling & heating water from GSHP, Solar
Photovoltaic (SPV) system for providing electricity and one remote monitoring system tomonitor the performance of the proposed system
Geo Source Heat Pumps (GSHP)
The detailed heat loads were calculated at first through computerized energy simulation. The
peak cooling demand and heating demand of the selected space have been established as
4.6 TR and 7.5 kW. One outdoor unit (ODU) of 8 HP capacity and four indoor units (IDU) eachof 1.5 TR capacities have been selected to provide required cooling and heating. The main
reason for selecting Geo Source heat pumps has been lower inlet water temperature in heatpump during cooling and higher water inlet water temperature during heating which improvethe efficiency and energy performance of heat pump.

4 gpm/TR

1800 CFM

0.5 kW

Figure 1: GSHP System

Geo-exchange system
It has been estimated that during peakconditions the heat exchange between soil
and conduit carrying water from the outlet ofthe heat pump is approximately 21.1 kW
before it cooled down or heated up to thedesired temperature to the inlet of heat pump.
The proposed geo-exchange consists of 5parallel rows with connected ends, each of
90 feet having slinky HDPE pipe of 10 mmdiameter and 1000 feet length laid in a
trench having 90 ft*15 dimensions and at a
depth of 12 feet below the ground. The total
length of HDPE pipe is approximately 5000
feet.

20 USgpm
0

32 C
0

27 C

Figure 2: Geo-exchange System~ ４５ ~

IndiaBenefits of Geo-exchange based heat pumps
In cooling mode

A brief comparison between conventional water cooled heat pump and geothermal basedheat pump (GSHP) is given below in table 2. It can be seen the COP of GSHP is 4.9 and ishigher than COP of conventionally water cooled heat pump which is around 3.5
Table 1: Comparison between conventional and geothermal based heat pumps
Parameters
Cooling medium
Water inlet temperature tocondenser (deg C)
Water outlet temperature fromcondenser (deg C)
Air supply temperature from theevaporator
Room air temperature
Coefficient of Performance incooling mode

Conventional heat
pump
Water
32

Geothermal heat
pump
Water
27

37

32

13

13

24
3.5

24
4.9

The above mentioned parameters were fed in the energy model developed for heat load
estimation and energy consumed by conventional water cooled heat pump and GSHP
systems was calculated and the details are as given below
Energy consumption with conventional heat pump
Energy consumption with geothermal heat pump
Saving: 5486 kWh/yr: 3924 kWh/yr: 29%

Use of GSHP will result in a reduction of around 29% energy consumption.
In heating mode
Electrical boilers consume normally one unit of electricity per kW of heating generated
through it. In comparison to it geothermal based heat pumps consume 0.7 unit of electricity togenerate 1 kW of heating. The energy consumed by conventional electrical heater andgeothermal heat pumps was calculated through simulation and the details are as explained
below:
Energy consumption with conventional heat pump
Energy consumption with geothermal heat pump
Saving: 2004 kWh/yr: 1382 kWh/yr: 31%

The use of GSHP accounts for a reduction of around 31% in energy consumption when it
operates in heating mode.

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IndiaWater savings
In addition to energy savings, geothermal based cooling/heating system leads to water savingof up to 4gpm/TR which is equivalent to 20 gpm and is equal to 2880000 gallons of water in
year* *Considering 10 hours a day for 250 days of the year
Initial analysis shows that in cooling mode, geothermal based 5 TR heat pumps are 29% more
efficient than conventional water based heat pump. In heating mode geothermal based heatpump is 31% more efficient that conventional electrical heater.
Integration with renewable source of energy
Compressor in heat pump requires electrical energy for its operation. This electrical energy
could be offset through Renewable source of energy. One of the Renewable energy sources
is Solar. Based on the size of geothermal heat pump, energy required per day by the heatpump and weather conditions of Itanagar, sizing of solar PV has been done and is shown infigure below: To offset the energy requirement of 5TR Heat pump, a 15 kWp solar PV system
is required.
Parameters
Current requirement by Heat Pump
Operating hours
Energy generation through solar PV in
ItanagarSize of Solar PV to offset energy requirementof Heat pump
Battery Size
Area Required on RoofHeat pump
11 amp for 0-10 sec, 2.6-A from 12 to 1-Sec,from 16-Sec onwards, 6.3-A from
8 hours/day and 200 days/year
2.8 kWh per kWp per day
15 kWp30 kWh/day
1800 sqft

Figure 3: Solar Photovoltaic System~ ４７ ~

IndiaDesigning of Remote Monitoring System
A remote monitoring system is proposed for simultaneous monitoring of different parametersthat affect the performance of the system from different remote sites. Figure 10 below shows
the various points which will be monitored and displayed by the remote monitoring system.
These include: Energy generation from Solar PV
 Energy consumption of Ground Source Heat Pump
 Energy consumption of condenser water (geo-exchange) pump
 Ambient temperature and relative humidity
 Room temperature and relative humidity
 Temperature of water to and from geo exchange system

Figure 4: Remote Monitoring System

It is therefore, critical that policy interventions are put in place to improve energy efficiency inboth new as well as existing buildings in these sectors. India has already identified buildings
as one of the sectors in its fight against climate change. However, a long term policy
initiative that encourages the development of cutting edge research and cost effective
technologies can bring about step changes in the energy use in building.
Conclusion of Pilot Project
After successfully demonstrating this PV based GSHP system with geo-exchange system it
would be possible to use this model in remote rural & semi-urban areas for health & institution
services and areas which are connected by road but not connected to grid it would be very
useful in application for tourist guest houses and offices. This would definitely be a very
replicable solution for addressing many issues and challenges related to economic
development, improving administration and most importantly proving clean solution forenvironmental challenges which almost all these states are facing badly.

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IndiaHeat pump market in India
The following observation presents a strong case for heat pump market in India


India represents huge potential for the consumer durable industry as the penetration levelof space heating and cooling appliances is very low
In spite of the erratic power supply in all Indian towns, more and more households are
installing an air conditioners, and many have moved up to at least two in a household.
Government policies & standards encourage energy efficient design or retrofit of buildings
which requires energy efficient spaces heating and cooling appliances.
India is still a power deficit country and due to increase in use of air conditioners andheaters, the gap in demand and supply will increase and in order to combat this every
increasing gap energy efficiency appliances are required.

BarriersIndian has already launched star labeling programs for air conditioners but there is no
program which supports exclusive use of air source heat pumps in India
Initial cost of heat pump is almost double of a normal air conditioner.

RecommendationsCampaign on heat pump needs to be initiated. The campaign needs to be financially
supported either from the funding by AHPNW or from the different manufacturer's.
Pilot studies for different applications need to be undertaken more with appropriatemonitoring system to instill confidence in potential users
Results of the Pilot study needs to be published and information should be disseminatedthrough printed brochures, e brochures.

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