Heat Pumps and Air-Conditioners

Roll-Over
Alert !

Reversing Valve

This house is cooled by the air conditioner system shown below.
Arrow showing QH flowing from house into the air conditioner.
QH
This arrow shows that work must be supplied to drive the heat pump.
Win
Arrow showing QC flowing from the air conditioner into hot air outside.
QC
Miniature process flow diagram of a heat pump cycle.
C10.
Hot Outside Air
The outside air is the cold reservoir for the household heat pump system
Air
Conditioning
Heat
Pump
The "cool" thing about

heat pumps

is that by simply letting the condenser and the evaporator trade places, the

heat pump

becomes an

air-conditioner

.
This is accomplished using a clever type of valve called a "slide" or "reversing" valve. The diagram below shows how this type of valve works. Be sure to try the rollovers.
Heat Pump
Mode
Diagram of the reversing valve showing how the valve connects the compressor and the heat exchangers in the heat pump mode.
Air
Conditioning
Mode
Diagram of the reversing valve showing how the valve connects the compressor and the heat exchangers in the air conditioning mode.
Heat
Pump
Air
Conditioning
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Ch 10, Lesson D, Page 2 - Heat Pumps and Air-Conditioners