A Review on Heat Pipe for Air Conditioning applications

Abstract

Heat pipe are popular in applications such as air conditioning, space technology, electronics, cooking etc. A literature review on heat pipe for air conditioning applications is conducted in the present paper. This paper focuses on the dehumidification enhancement and sensible heat recovery aspects of heat pipe heat exchanger for an air conditioning application. Based on this study, the application of a heat pipe heat exchanger in the conventional air conditioning systems is recommended as an efficient means for energy savings and dehumidification enhancement to maintain acceptable room conditions. This paper gives the idea about various parameters and methods that used for dehumidification enhancement and heat recovery application. This review concludes that, the use of heat pipe heat exchanger for heat recovery and dehumidification enhancement application makes significant changes in indoor air quality and energy consumption. So the use of HPHX is strongly recommended for Air Conditioning applications. By adding a heat pipe across the air stream it is possible to precool incoming air and the heat removed from the incoming air is then fed back into the outgoing air reheating it and reducing the relative humidity. Advantage of using heat pipe is precooling and reheating actions involve no additional energy usage. But it is beneficial in situation wherein reheating is necessary for maintaining required indoor conditions. The resulting energy saving is up to 30%.