On the hottest days of summer, a typical household consumes 20-30% more electricity than average reflecting an increase in air conditioner usage. To address this need, utility companies must invest in expensive and inefficient "peaker plants" to meet high demand which results in increased prices for consumers during peak periods that can last up to eight hours. Our goal was to design a heat exchanger that stores "coolness" to assist with cooling loads during peak periods. Using numerical values representative of the Worcester, MA area, the proposed heat exchanger can store a maximum of 18 kWh of thermal energy and produce air at 16.2°C through a home's existing heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Flores, Christine V.
• Labarge, Alison N.
• Benn, Geraldine Anne

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-041219-100245

Advisor

• Guceri, Selcuk

Year

• 2019

Date created

• 2019-04-12

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Mechanical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright