Predictive optimization of the air flow rate for a residential heat pump in seasonal performance conditions.

• Optimum air flow rates can be predicted for various part load conditions. • Non-iterative simulation model is established for seasonal performance conditions. • A novel dimensionless correlation is developed for heat exchanger effectiveness. • The optimum air flow rate is significant to achieve better seasonal performance. The seasonal performance has become increasingly important for residential heat pumps which occupy a majority of household power consumption. Thus, the heat pump system and its components are requested to be re-designed with reflecting the part load characteristics. Furthermore, actuators should be optimally operated for each test condition to maximize system efficiency. Among them, indoor and outdoor fan speeds are the only variable that can be independently controlled and have the widest operation range. Therefore, in this study, a non-iterative heat pump simulation model is presented to precisely predict the optimum air flow rate for each part load condition by introducing the modified effectiveness. The non-dimensional correlation is developed for the modified effectiveness and semi-empirical efficiency models are utilized for estimating the compressor performance. Validating experiments identify that the model can predict the optimum air flow rate for various part load conditions within an error of 10%. Consequently, the optimum air flow rate can be instantly obtained for various operating conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]