Abstract The cascade refrigeration cycle system has been used mainly to obtain the ultra-low temperature. In this study, the effects of internal and outdoor temperatures at chamber on the heat capacity of fin-tube heat exchangers were examined. In addition, refrigerant line patterns as well as refrigerant type for cascade cycle were optimized. The results in this study show that the refrigerant line patterns have greater effect on the sensible capacity than the total capacity. Also, the condenser heat release rate for R717-R744 cycle varies the ratio of 46 % with outdoor temperature by comparing with that of 24% for R134a-R410a cycle.

To analyze and verify the effect of replacing thermal storage heater by a cascade cycle heat pump using midnight electricity was installed and tested at a customer's house in Wonju, Korea. The electric night storage heater is consist of 30kW electric heater and 2,700 liters of thermal storage water tank to supply hot water for warming house floor. The power for electric heater was cut off and hot water was only generated by cascade cycle heat pump. Current thermal storage water tank was not eliminated and electric heater wiring was modified. Some operation logic of the heat pump was also modified for proper operation. The required capacity of the heat pump and hot water temperature for given warming condition were estimated. The estimated capacity of heat pump was about 19kW and estimated hot water temperature for proper heating was at least 75℃.

The cost to electricity is cheaper at night due to electric supply and demand policy in Korea. During daytime the loads are higher and extra generators are brought "on-line" to meet the demand. In the middle of night loads are lower and they need to throttle back the generators. So KEPCO (Korea Electric Power Corporation) offers "time of use" (TOU) rates to balance the grid load. The night storage heaters are generally on a separate circuit which is only switched on when the night rate is activated. Since 2000 the price of NG, kerosene and other petroleum based fuel for heating has been increased rapidly and overtook the price of electricity at last, so more and more people have chosen night storage heaters to save energy price. Currently about 900,000 customers are using electric night heaters and this causes shift of peak demand time to night in winter and increase of deficit spending. To solve this problem, replacing electric night heater by air-source heat pump has been proposed. An air-source heat pump can provide efficient heating and cooling for building, especially in a warm climate. When properly installed, an air-source heat pump can deliver one-and-a-half to three times more heat energy to a building than the electrical energy it consumes. This is possible because a heat pump moves heat rather than converting it from a fuel, like in combustion heating systems.