A plethora of findings exists on the decreasing heat transfer performance of ASHP under frosting condition. This study investigates, using field and laboratory experiments, the frosting behavior and heat transfer performance of fin-tube exchangers. Findings from our initial observation revealed the severity of frosting phenomenon during winter in hot summer and cold winter zone of China; for avoiding the lower COP, defrosting period of ASHP was not bigger than 60 min. The results showed that although the basic tube surface temperature decreases with running time and remains stable after 70 min, an adverse pressure drop ensued. The findings, thereby suggests a 70 min defrosting period in ASP. Comparing / and COP between exchangers revealed an improved performance of plain fin-tube exchanger over that of louver fintube exchanger in all the test conditions. Therefore, under frosting condition, plain fin-tube heat exchanger provides a superior thermal-hydraulic performance over louver fin-tube heat exchanger. Findings from this study will help designers and facility managers in taking a more informed decision when selecting heat exchanger types for ASHP.
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