compressor for wind powered heat pump

[tomwol]

The first thing I should say is I am not a refrigeration engineer but need your advice on a project for a wind powered heat pump I would like to construct for a house in the UK.
I hope that some of you here may be familiar with heat pump technology for creating heat rather than cold?
Could any one recomend a suitable compressor to be directly driven off a small domestic wind turbine. It needs to work at variable speeds and be not too difficult to start up from stationary. It will be used to heat a water resevoirs under the floor of the building as background heat in a very windy location.
Any suggestions? or advice about where I might find technical advice would be greatly appreciated.
Many Thanks
Tom

[taz24]

Could any one recomend a suitable compressor to be directly driven off a small domestic wind turbine. It needs to work at variable speeds and be not too difficult to start up from stationary. It will be used to heat a water resevoirs under the floor of the building as background heat in a very windy location.
Any suggestions? or advice about where I might find technical advice would be greatly appreciated.
Many Thanks
Tom

Wow what a project.
I'm a fan of heat pumps.
Are you wanting to run the compressor directly from the turbine? Using belts or direct on? The biggest problem I see with this is the starting torque and then the fluctuation in power output.
Also the practicalities of mounting the comp.
If your fan is high enough up to catch the wind how do you connect to the comp and if the fan needs to rotate so it can catch the direction of the wind then your compressor would not be able to move because of the pipes that attach.
You could transfer your drive veritcaly and then use gears to transmit the drive to the comp.

Most direct drive comps rotate at 1400rpm but belt driven comps rotate slower, maybe 500rpm.

The variability of the fan will be a problem because as a rule we like constant control to the comp so we can get constant out put.

There is a lot to think about and it sounds like a good project. I'll let others offer their two-peneth worth and lets see if you get some answers to your question.

Good luck
Cheers taz.

[DVaider]

Hi, Tomwol. I think you should drive your compressor non-directly from wind; you should use electric power reciever (I don't know how does it discribes exactly, but I think you understand me;) ). It should generate an electric current after recieving necessary quantity of energy.

[The Viking]

Now this brings old memories back.

I did something similar in a stream many moons ago (direct-hydro-heating!).

Your best bet is to opt for an old open type compressor, Bitzer is the manufacturer that springs to mind but I'm sure there are others out there (these are the ones with a "fly wheel" on the side of them - normally they are belt driven).

As previously mentioned you will need to get the rotary motion down to ground level some how but this shouldn't be a big issue if you use 2 bevel type gearboxes.

The high starting torque will be something to consider, but it could be minimised by fitting some sort of off-loader (a solenoid valve between the suction and the discharge)

When it comes to RPMs, don't worry too much about it.
You will lose performance by running the compressor slow BUT HEY, your power source is free.

[The MG Pony]

Even a car A/C compressor will work well, and with a nice big evap should be a good low compression ratio.

[The Viking]

Now there's a good Idea!
Even if their duty are low, it would be easy to use a couple of them and then sequence their start-up.
You could even modulate the duty and allow even light winds to produce (limited) heating.(For this option I suspect that you will need completely separate refrigerant circuits for each compressor in order to maximise the part load efficiency).

BTW, where about are you based?

[The MG Pony]

Now there's a good Idea!
Even if their duty are low, it would be easy to use a couple of them and then sequence their start-up.
You could even modulate the duty and allow even light winds to produce (limited) heating.(For this option I suspect that you will need completely separate refrigerant circuits for each compressor in order to maximise the part load efficiency).

BTW, where about are you based?


The real beauty is you can let the blades spin up with a fly wheel then engage the clutch so start up is of no issue.

[Capt'n Fixit]

Hello everyone I have been very interested in this technology driving a compressor of sorts to power a refrigeration system to heat a water reservoir have there been any further developments
:cool:

[Karl Hofmann]

Ha!! MG Pony beat me to it..:D A number of car aircon compressors could be run off one fan and the number could be engaged to select required duty and to suit wind conditions... Just add 12 Volts.. Years ago I did consider using a water wheel to power the heat pumps... but I couldn't afford to buy anywhere near flowing water..:(