[Acuario]

Hi,

I've been looking at various designs of heat pumps and they fit into two main categories;
1. Air source
2. Ground source

Air source tend to be 'monoblock' with the compressor etc. fitted in the same box as the evaporator; the heat exchanger either being in the same box or elsewhere.

Ground source generally have both the evaporator and condensor in the same box and use brine as a heat transport.

I came across a third variation that has me interested; the only manufacturer I can find is Danfoss - I guess they know a thing or two about refrigeration!

The design seems to be a sort of hybrid; they circulate brine to an external evaporator that has air as its heat source, and the internal unit then has (as per a ground source heat pump) 2 heat exchangers for the condensor and evaporator.

Any thoughts on this design? It has me intrigued as one of the problems I've suffered with is icing of my evaporator on cold days (yes I need to build a control system to stop it but it's more fun to experiment).

Using brine then it would be possible to construct a large air source heat 'collector' that would operate at very low temperatures and hopefully wouldn't freeze up..

Search Google for Danfoss DHP-A (note it's not the DHP-AX) to see what I'm on about.

Nigel