Compressor Module for Heat Recovery Heat Pump
in the Engineering and Science Research Building
| Background: Last year a team designed a new building ventilation air heat recovery system using an advanced vapor compression refrigeration cycle in a heat pump configuration for the recent addition to Barrows Hall known as the Engineering Science Research Building. This year’s project is to build on that foundation and design the compressor module for this heat pump; module design includes the selection of motorized ball valves and electric expansion valves and module related piping to regulate and accommodate refrigerant flow path(s) and rates and the mounting structure(s) for the compressor and these refrigerant flow control items. The Engineering Science Research building uses large amounts of outside ventilation air all the time to comply with OSHA regulations on laboratory space ventilation. Currently about 50,000 cfm of outside air is brought in, heated in winter or cooled in summer to maintain a comfortable environment in the building and then exhausted from the building. The original building design contained a provision for a system to recover some of the energy used to heat or cool this ventilation air, but budget problems led to it not being installed; space was retained in the air handling equipment to accommodate future installation of a system. Last year’s design team showed that the heat recovery system would save approximately $15,000 and 28,000 gallons of #6 oil burned at the steam plant per heating season. Additional savings would be realized during summer for cooling air conditioning but these were not quantified in last year’s project as they will be less. |
Hard Milestones :
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