In the present study, the experimental study was conducted using a multi-calorie meter, to investigate the cooling performance and cycle operation changes of the multi-heat pump (3 indoor units) for the low outside temperature in summer. The test temperature condition was the low cooling temperature, and the normal performance and dynamic behavior of 3 rooms, 2 rooms, and 1 room were measured to understand the operating characteristics of seven 7 indoor unit combinations. As a result of the experiment, the cooling capacity and COP of the multi-heat pump at low cooling temperature were about 10% and 6% higher than those of the cooling standard temperature. In addition, the dynamic behavior of the indoor units of 3 and 2 rooms was observed differently due to the load difference according to the indoor unit combinations and the non-uniformity of the refrigerant amount. And, when starting the heat pump, the compressor had a maximum peak value and stabilized by repeating the decrease and increase for each indoor unit combination.

In order to experimentally investigate the operation characteristics of the multi-heat pump with 3 indoor units, the dynamic characteristics of the cooling cycle is studied using the psychrometric multi-calorimeter. The compressor of the heat pump is the scroll inverter type, and since 3 indoor units operate cooling at the same time, it is operated at 100% full load. In particular, 3 types of indoor unit temperatures (20, 24, 26°C) are selected to understand the operation process of the multi-heat pump by the setting temperature. From this experiment, the compressor controls the EEV opening for each indoor unit while varying the frequency according to the initial start, transient, and steady operation. In addition, as the setting temperature increases in the steady range, the frequency of the compressor and the average opening degree of the EEV decrease.

In the present study, it is conducted to understand the heating performance and compressor operation characteristics according to 7 indoor unit combinations and 3 setting temperatures of the inverter multi-heat pump under heating standard temperature conditions. Heating capacity, COP and compressor frequency are investigated using the multi-calorimeter. The indoor unit combinations are simultaneous operation(A+B+C), partial operation(A+C, A+B, B+C) and independent operation(A, B, C), and the setting temperature is 20, 21, and 30°C. Since the increase in the setting temperature increases the compress frequency, the heating capacity increases, but COP decreases due to the increase in power consumption. The frequency increases as the indoor unit combination capacity increases, and decreases as the setting temperature decreases in the steady state.