Study on the Heating Performance Characteristics of a Heat Pump System Utilizing Air and Waste Heat Source for Electric Vehicles

An electric vehicle is an environment-friendly automobile which does not emit any tailpipe pollutant. In a conventional vehicle with an internal combustion engine, the internal cabin of the vehicle is usually heated using waste heat from the engine. However, for an electric vehicle, an alternative solution for heating is required because it does not have a combustion engine. Recently, a heat pump system which is widely used for residential heating due to its higher efficiency has been studied for its use as a heating system in electric vehicles. In this study, a heat pump system utilizing air source and waste heat source from electric devices was investigated experimentally. The performance of the heat pump system was measured by varying the mass flow rate ratio. The experimental results show that the heating capacity and COP in the dual heat source heat pump were increased by 20.9% and 8.6%, respectively, from those of the air-source heat pump.