Performance monitoring of an adsorption heat pump has been studied in a case of hot water delivery to a slaughterhouse when heat demand is a very irregular function of time. As the heat delivered by an adsorption heat pump is discontinuous, a heat storage tank has been used. The influence of the heat transfer fluid mass flow rate in the heat pump is very important because - a low mass flow rate yields a high temperature lift but a low efficiency, - a high mass flow rate produces instabilities on the condenser and yields a low efficiency, and - an intermediate mass flow rate yields a reasonable efficiency and a correct temperature lift. Nevertheless, after a very large peak demand, the temperature requirement is not satisfied and a 7% dissatisfaction of the needs is obtained. To get 100% satisfaction of the needs, it would probably be necessary to overdesign the heat pump and the boiler.

KEYWORDS: performance, monitoring, adsorption, heat pumps, calculating, hot water supply, abattoirs, heat load, heat flow, fluid flow, efficiency, temperature, absorption heat pumps.