Performance analysis on compression-assisted absorption heat transformer: A new low-temperature heating system with higher heating capacity under lower ambient temperature

With the acceleration of urbanization, the energy consumption of space heating and domestic hot water has increased rapidly. Air source heat pump (ASHP), water source heat pump (WSHP) and absorption heat pump (AHP) have been widely used. However, when the ambient temperature decreases, the building heating load increases gradually, while the heating capacities of ASHP and air source AHP degrade quickly, and that of WSHP remains unchanged; this is detrimental for the selection and cost of heating systems. Therefore, a new low-temperature heating system with higher heating capacity under lower ambient air temperature is proposed here, meeting the ever-rising building heating load. It is based on compression-assisted absorption heat transformer (CAHT), and its performance is analyzed under various parameters, including the ambient air temperature, the driving temperature and the heating temperature. In addition, the cumulative electricity consumption of a heating system, consisting of CAHT and WSHP, is calculated during the heating periods in five Chinese cities. Consequently, both the heating efficiency and capacity of CAHT increase with the decrease of ambient temperature. And compared with WSHP and ASHP heating systems in five cities, the energy-saving rates of CAHT heating system are 2.02–24.88% and 36.65–57.28%, respectively.