XINCA Tech Services

TROUBLESHOOTING HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS…INDOOR / OUTDOOR TEMPS VS SUPERHEAT W/ FIXED ORIFICE SYSTEMS

If you look at a superheat charging chart for a fixed orifice system, you quickly see the required superheat varies with outdoor and indoor conditions. As the outdoor temperatures vary, so does the required superheat…pretty much the same relationship for indoor temperatures. Why? The net force pushing liquid through the metering device is the difference in the head and suction pressures, more or less. And I would guess the designers figure in some maximum outdoor temperature in conjunction with some minimum indoor temp and come up with a minimum superheat value for “worst case” scenarios.

The point being, if the outdoor temperature is 75F you don’t won’t want a “beer can cold” suction line…because by the time the afternoon temperature hits mid-90’s, the increased head pressure will have increased the “net force” pushing the liquid through the orifice, and the system will be overcharged, resulting in a lower than desired superheat.

Likewise, if the indoor temps are “high”, superheats will be high. Most charging charts use indoor wetbulb as the control variable, since wetbulb temps include the humidity factor. As indoor wetbulb goes down, the superheat will decrease, everything else being equal. The following clip demonstrates variations in superheat with outdoor conditions.