| Summary: | This report was performed in order to evaluate a new technological measure and focuses generally on a heat pump system to a HWC-washing machine. The client is Asko Appliances AB, a company well known for its environmentally friendly products. The goal of this study was to improve the energy efficiency of a washing machine by combining a heat pump device to the heater of the wash water, in order to reduce the energy consumed for heating the water. Besides reducing the energy consumption in heating the water, the washing machine was required to meet low noise and short operating time specifications. For that purpose, nine trials in three test series have been carried out. In each of those trials, airflow has been combined with the refrigerant flow and the energy consumption measured. The comparison of the results shows that the energy efficiency is the highest when the flow rates of both the air and the refrigerant are low. Further, the energy consumption in terms of electricity used in heating the water has been lowered by 71% in comparison to a refernce washing machine using no heat pump device. The paper also discusses possible improvement actions related to this technological mesure. This technological measure can be applied on HWC-washing machines and can replace conventional electrically heated washing machines.
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