Energy Conservation Potential of the Heat Pipe Heat Exchangers: Experimental Study and Predictions

The energy conservation potential of the heat pipe based heat exchangers (HPHXs) was studied in this research. To this end, a typical climate chamber as the representative of an air conditioning system was established. The performance characteristic of a typical eight-row HPHX was obtained based on the one week operation (168 h) to determine the performance characteristic curves. The coil face velocity and inside temperature were set at 2 and 24, respectively. Then, the relevant empirical performance equations were used to predict the energy conservation of the HPHX for the years of 2000, 2020, and 2050. The predictions showed that total amounts of 6,794 kWh, 11,278 kWh, and 14,132 kWh energy could be recovered by the fabricated HPHX in the years of 2000, 2020, and 2050, respectively.