Lead Performer: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – Berkeley, CA
June 22, 2023
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Lead Performer: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – Berkeley, CA
Partners:
-- Purdue University
-- University of Oklahoma
-- Oak Ridge National Laboratory
-- University of California, Berkeley
-- Johnson Controls Inc.
DOE Total Funding: $1,300,000
Project Term: October 1, 2022 – September 30, 2025
Funding Type: Lab Award
Project Objective
This project aims to overcome a critical barrier to enable FDD at scale for residential heat pumps. To achieve this, the team proposes a solution that not only reduces the FDD sensor cost but also aligns with the industry marketing and distribution strategy. The technology (1) reduces the FDD sensor cost by leveraging and enhancing the state-of-the-art virtual sensor-based FDD technology that combines inexpensive sensors with physics/characteristics of a system while detecting and diagnosing common faults in heat pumps, and (2) aligns with the premium marketing strategy by fully leveraging the increased controllability of high-end products (i.e., variable speed compressor, accumulator and EXV) and FDD infrastructure. Both simulation and laboratory experiments will be carried out for each development step of new virtual sensors, advanced controls and the integration between FDD and controls to ensure the quality of each piece. The virtual sensor-based FDD and control suite will be applied to industry partner’s residential HP product (FDD-embedded, split system). The built-in FDD and controls will be replaced with the proposed technology, and the performance will be compared between the prototype and baseline systems. To effectively and timely carry out the research tasks with reliability, this project engages:
- The Purdue team, which is the original developer of the virtual sensor-based FDD technology, and of a unique transient-HP modeling method that can simulate dynamic variation of HP performance under frosting and defrosting conditions.
- The University of Oklahoma (OU) team, which has designed and tested optimal superheat and dynamic active charge control for an AC product, and has already set up a test rig of the baseline HP system in their psychrometric chamber.
- The ORNL team, which is the original developer of the heat pump design model that will be used to validate a dynamic HP model in support of control design in this project.
- The Center for the Built Environment at the University of California, Berkeley (CBE) team, which has connection with a diverse set of industry and government partners and will support functional tests of the prototype under real-world operating conditions.
- The Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) team, which will serve an advisory role to provide feedback from industry and market perspectives on a regular basis and donate the baseline product.
Project Impact
The virtual sensor-based FDD and control project will improve residential heat pump energy efficiency (targeting at overall 15% improvement) and reduce defrost energy (targeting at 20%), and will offset the necessary cost increment for embedding FDD.
Contacts
DOE Technology Manager: Payam Delgoshaei
Lead Performer: Donghun Kim