Common problems in heat pump applications and precautions

1. Introduction

Heat pump is a device that can transfer heat from a cooler medium to a warmer medium. Heat pump
forces heat energy from cooler medium to warmer medium by using an external energy. It is generally
more practical to extract heat from a medium whose temperature do not change significantly when
heat pump’s required heat is extracted. As a source medium generally ground, water (sea, lake, river,
underground water sources etc.) or air are used. Heat pumps also can transfer heat from warmer
medium to a cooler medium. Therefore, they can also be used as a cooling device.

Heat pumps have many benefits. In comparison with natural gas heating, heat pump systems who have
2.8 COP value is more economical for the last user in most of Europe because of average ratio of
electrical energy to natural gas energy is around 2.8 [Lund and Boyd, 2016]. If it is looked from the
aspect of general energy conversion, heat pump can provide higher heat energy. In a conventional
combustion process, maximum thermal conversion from a primary energy is around 97%. In other
word, from a 100 unit primary energy, 97 unit heat energy can be obtained. However, if the 100 unit
primary energy is converted to electrical energy and then this electrical energy is used in heat pumps
can give more heat energy (Fig.1).

Fig.1: Comparison of heat energy production from different ways.

Furthermore, some gases like natural gas can be used directly in the heat pumps in conversion process
[Hepbasli et al., 2009]. However, gas driven heat pumps are more complicated than electrical driven
heat pumps and they have almost same thermal performance [Brenn et al., 2010].

Adverse effects of emissions from fossil fuels are becoming more evident nowadays and European
Union announced an Energy Efficiency Action Plan that targets to reduce energy consumption from
buildings. [EU COM/2011/0109] In this point of view it can be said that heat pumps that have no direct
emission to the air will be one of the important instruments to achieve the green future target of
Union. Furthermore, heat pump systems do not need imported sources from outside of the Union.
They use local sources nearby the system, like ground, water or air and etc.

Electrically driven heat pumps attracts people also because of its simplicity. This simplicity is important
especially for systems for whom there may be big problems in case of whose service interrupted. The
simplicity comes from the lacking of active part. Only compressor of heat pump is active during its
running.

Despite its simplicity, being environmentally friendly, having high performance and low running cost,
heat pumps do not have widely usage. Instead of this conventional heating systems more widely used
in Europe [Bayer et.al. 2012]. One of the important disadvantages of heat pumps their high prices. In
comparison with conventional systems their prices are high. Furthermore, lack of enough public
reliability to heat pump is another factor on spreading wide areas. Because of these systems are not
mature like the conventional systems problems can be seen more frequently.

Some previous studies were examined testing of heat pumps for different scenarios. Deng et.al. (2019)
monitored 32 different heat pumps, for a large scale field analysis. Some of them are GSHP, some are
surface water and some are air source. The authors investigated different properties of system like
source temperature, heat loss, and heat load etc. One of their conclusions states that the source
temperature has big effect on the performance, therefore middle deep boreholes are advised.
Furthermore, heat losses from the device to heating places are important and instead of a large device
in total same amount cascade installation of small heat pumps are advised. Banister et al. (2014) is
developed a test system for solar-assisted heat pumps to see how the mathematical models represent
the behaviors of heat pumps. It is founded that there is a strong agreement between models and test
results. Amoabeng et al. (2017) looked testing of heat pumps from different perspective. They
examined characteristics of a water-to-water heat pump testing facility. They found that, as it is
expected large capacity heat pumps require large power to test and energy consumption of test station
was about ten times of the heat pump test unit. Domanski et al. (2014) were carried out a sensitivity
analysis of installation faults on heat pump performance. As they reported, duct leakage is very big
problem in most of the systems and design faults on heat pump capacity and pipelines cause poor
performance on the heat pump systems.

2. Common problems in heat pump systems

If we look the problems that encountered in heat pump applications most of the problems based on
outside of heat pumps. Instead of there are various problems have seen we can mainly classified the
problems as given below:

 Problems based on source side

2.1. Source Side

The first in the frequently encountered problem comes problems based on source side. Mostly the
thermal properties of source side do not be calculated precisely or essential tests are not carried out.
For instance in case of the requirement of over heat energy in the coldest time insufficient source
results fault of heat pump.

In ground source applications insufficient ground heat exchanger (GHEx) or wrong long-term
predictions of GHEx, in water source applications high temperature drops because of over extreme
heat extraction, wrong determination on water source, in air source application, not considering the
effect of moisture, wind and shading are some of most frequently seen problems.
In ground source application in long-term usage, high temperature drop in the borehole is one of the
common encountered problems. Furthermore, leakage problems can cause totally shut down of the
system. Grouting is another important factor in the vertical ground heat exchangers. In the
implementation of grout, air gaps can reduce heat transfer dramatically, also inability to provide a rigid
grout structure make more sensible it to even slow movements of ground strata. Some other problems
can be seen during grouting [Rackley, 2017].

In horizontal ground heat exchangers not well analyzing of the ground leads to source side problems
in the heat pump system. Mostly heat pump continues to work until a low degree, however, thermal
performance may highly drop down and even ground can be frozen.

2.2. Equipment

Furthermore, the problems that seen on the equipment of fitting installation is simple to solve
however typically seen problems. The most important part here choosing the right circulation pumps,
the providing of them enough flow-rate is very important. In addition because of lacking in designing
process insufficient heat extraction, insufficient heat injection, disregarding the pressure losses,
clogging of pipes or equipment too often seen.

The temperature of the fluid circulating in underground in heating mode of heat pumps drops to sub-
zero temperatures, in order prevent frost anti-freeze are used. Depending on the temperature, ratio
of anti-freeze is chosen from the tables. However, in some of heat pump, systems because of the
incorrect installation and high temperature, in some points some vaporization and some bubbles can
be occurred and these bubbles can be thrown out from the air-purge system. In these kind of systems
after a period of time frost can be seen in evaporator side.

2.3. Design Problems

In addition, wrong choosing the system total power can reduce considerably system’s efficiency. For
instance, choosing power of the system far above real need [Naicker and Rees, 2018] or choosing very
low or not supporting the system one auxiliary system can be given as common design problems. In
case of choosing low capacity results the systems running continuously in maximum power, this cause
fatigue and high probability of error and cannot be achieved the desired thermal performance from
the system.

2.4. Device and its control system

Problems on the device itself are rare. Because the manufacturer make improvement based on the
seen problems before. However, after long year usage, some blockages can be seen in the heat
exchangers.

Furthermore, complexity of the control system make so complicated to efficiently usage of system by
users. In some heat pumps inbuilt auxiliary resistive heaters that is used mostly in defrost conditions
are frequently activated and this cause high electrical costs for the customers.

3. Precautions

The requirements for a well and healthy system are a good planning, a good analysis and calculations,
a good device, good labor and good usage. As can be seen here a well working system is consisted of
many components.

For a good design a planning the first thing a good desktop study. This desktop study could be better
with the help of other experts e.g. ground experts, underground water experts, geologists,
hydrogeologists or meteorologists and engineers etc. Because of the reasons given above, planning of
source side is very important. Annually heating and cooling curves of the system, yearly simulation of
the system and choosing the right system based on these analysis are some important steps in the
designing process. If the heat pump system is going to be used as unique system, it is better to choose
total power of the system considering the coolest time that seen in the last years. Furthermore, an
unique systems can be supported with auxiliary systems. The power of the system that have an
auxiliary unit can be chosen lower capacity than the most required power. In large applications the
cascade design have lots advantages, total efficiency of system higher than the unique system, in case
of fault in one device, the others can sustain working of the system and an auxiliary system is not
needed.

3.1. Vertical ground source heat pumps

Because of tightness is very important and during the installation of pipes to boreholes scratching on
the pipes can be happened and other unpredictable soil effects can cause some problems in future
usages. Instead of normal PE pipe, newly developed cross-linked PEx pipes will be more robust. It is
also useful to use double U-tubes or triple U-tubes [8] instead of a single U-tube. In addition, the
connection of each end of these U-pipes with the collector system will allow the others to continue to
operate in the event of a problem that can be seen future usage of borehole. In addition, the studies
conducted prior to implementation should be well examined, it is also important to be carried out one
or more TRTs and to try to predict the long-term behavior of these systems with numerical models.
For more detailed information see Witte [2016].

3.2. Horizontal ground source heat pumps

Horizontal ground source heat pump systems can be highly affected by seasonal temperature changes
because of they are not deeply buried. In addition, such systems require a wide area for the
application. The ground needs to be renewed itself yearly as heat is extracted from the ground. Good
selection of loop spacing of pipes or slinky-like systems can be used. Vertical placement of slinky
systems, instead of horizontally design, may reduce the required space [Aydin et al. 2015]. For vertical
slinky application required trench can be opened very easily with the devices that can cut the soil. The
case of pipes or slinky loops are close together can cause freezing in the soil. The occurrence of shading
will lead to a significant decrease in the performance of the system and may even cause the system to
halt. It should also be remembered that long-rooted plants might damage the system. The best system
that can be suggested is to plant grass on the soil and to keep the soil moist with continuous irrigation.

3.3. Water source heat pump systems

Water source systems can be classified as open systems, which are direct systems of groundwater and
disposal of pipes into water. High performances can be obtained from systems that use groundwater,
sea and stream water directly [Kavanaugh and Rafferty, 2014]. However, maintenance is very
important in these systems, and the heat exchanger to be used in combination requires continuous
maintenance. If there is a maintenance staff who is constantly employed at the location of the system,
very positive results are obtained, but there are problems in those systems where there is no one who
is constantly take care the maintenance.

In addition, underground water must be analyzed. Keeping the sea creatures out of the system are
important, nesting, mossing, plugging etc. events occur frequently. In closed systems, algae can
converts pipes in the water a single block and can reduce thermal performance considerably.
In systems where standing column-like, water is drawn from the same well and drained into the same
well, the temperature must be monitored well. Hydraulic tests must be done in the wells drawn water.
In addition, the materials to be used in the installation must be resistant to groundwater.

3.4. Air source heat pumps systems

One of the most important problems in air source systems is that the temperature can falls below the
expected level in a during the usage period of the year and that may fails the system. In addition, taking
into consideration only the temperature are a wrong approach. The annual change in humidity in the
air, the effect of wind, shading should be considered factors. The air from air-exhausted air ducts, or
in the sewer system can be also used efficiently.

3.5. Problems with the device

The device should take precautions against possible failure situations or tell the malfunction
whatsoever, so the device should be a little bit smarter and will reduce the errors in the systems.

In general, high flexibility in the control system forced the device to continue to work in undesired
situations, thus overstrain the components and the life of the device is reduced.

In heat pump performance comparisons, only standard values are like B0 / W35 etc. classifications are
used. However, this value cannot give the status of the device in different loads. Instead, it would be
a more accurate approach to draw performance curves as with the same circulation pumps.

In addition, the device is not only tested in a test station, but also in a sample application, different
fault modes can be assumed, these kind of test could show how successful the device is. These modes
can be decided considering the failure cases, for instance, an amount of percentage increase or
decrease demand on the top power of the device, low flow-rates in both sides, many shut down and
start up etc. With this kind of tests durability, stability of a heat pump can be seen.

4. Conclusion

As it mentioned before, a well working, healthy, long life, durable system occurs participation of many
components. A well designed system based on long term simulations of source and sink side, a device
that successful in different tests including the worst scenarios, periodically maintenance can increase
success of the systems. A smart device that can show sources of failures will be more useful to take
preventive actions in right time. Successful systems will increase reliability of the systems and help
wider usage of heat pumps.

5. References

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facility for a water-to-water heat pump. International Journal of Refrigeration. DOI:
10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2017.11.013

Aydin, M. and Sisman, A. 2015. Experimental and computational investigation of multi U-tube
boreholes, Applied Energy, 145, 163-171.

Aydin, M., Sisman, A., Gultekin, A. and Dehghan, B. 2015. An experimental performance comparison
between different shallow ground heat exchangers”, Proceedings of World Geothermal Congress
(WGC) 2015, April 19-24 2015, Melbourne, (Australia).

Banister, C.J., Wagar, W.R., Collins, M.R. 2014. Solar-assisted heat pump test apparatus. Energy
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Brenn, J., Soltic, P., Bach, Ch. 2010. Comparison of natural gas driven heat pumps and electrically driven
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Domanski, P.A., Henderson, H.I., Payne, W.V. 2014. Sensitivity analysis of installation faults on heat
pump performance. National Institute of Standards and Technology Technical Note 1848.
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Hepbasli, A., Erbay, Z., Icier, F., Colak, N., Hancioglu, E. 2009. A review of gas engine driven heat pumps
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Kavanaugh, S.P. and Rafferty, K., 2014. Geothermal Heating and Cooling: Design of Ground–Source
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