FR3033399A3 - AIR CONVEYOR FOR HEAT PUMP - Google Patents

Abstract

The object of the present invention is a heat pump (HP) air-air or air-water in which, to bring the air component heat source for the evaporator (102) to its front (106), provides a conveyor (104) of air. The invention provides means for improving the uniformity of distribution of air on the front of the evaporator (106). According to a preferred variant, flow guides (107) are provided which form channels (108) substantially in contact with said front of the evaporator (106) with outlet surface sections Si so that, in correspondence, the density of air flow is substantially equal for each of said channels (108). The advantages of the invention lie in the fact that a uniform distribution of the air flow density improves the efficiency of the heat pump (HP).

Description

The present invention relates to means for improving a heat exchanger between the air 5 and another medium, where its front edge on the air side is plane. In particular, such a heat exchanger is an exchanger of a heat pump. Even more particularly, such a heat exchanger is the evaporator of an air-water or air-air heat pump in which consequently the heat source is the air which passes through an evaporator, provided with a conveyor of heat. the air to be sent to the evaporator and where, but preferably only, said heat pump, if it is of the air-water type: - is intended for the production of domestic hot water; - is intended for domestic use or for commercial activities; 20 - is intended to be installed in internal premises, such as, in general, technical rooms, basements or storage rooms; uses as a source of heat the air coming from a medium different from that of the installation. Without loss of generality, the following description will, in particular, refer to air-water heat pumps mentioned above. In such heat pumps, even if they are installed inside a building, the air of the external medium is almost always used as a cold source; Accordingly, a supply duct is provided for supplying to the evaporator the air drawn from the outside and a pipe for expelling the same air outside. 3033399 2 The ducts used in air-water heat pumps are normally of circular section with increasing diameter, for increasing operating flow rates. Typically, for domestic applications, the diameters distributed in the trade are 100, 125, 150, 160, 200 mm and whatever is suggested by the manufacturer. Rectangular sections are used only for low flow applications. The drawings attached to the description illustrate circular ducts without deleting the generality of the invention. The fact that the location of the heat pump is, as far as possible, a basement, implies that, preferably, the entry of air into the machine is carried out in height, in order to be able to connect a section of conduit descending vertically at least at ground level, connected with an elbow to an anterior horizontal duct connected to the air intake on an exterior wall of the building.

On the other hand, for reasons of construction, it is preferable that the evaporator of the heat pump is arranged with a vertical arrangement, at least for an easy expulsion, downstream, of the air which must therefore pass through it. a horizontal direction of flow.

In such heat pumps, therefore, is provided at the air inlet, a conveyor which deflects the direction of the air flow of 90 ° from the vertical to the horizontal. The conveyor has an inlet on which engages the vertical duct which is substantially almost always preceded, as mentioned, at least another deflection of 90 ° in a bend. Sudden deviations of the airflow produce high turbulence and non-uniformity of flow and, consequently, high pressure losses and poor air distribution in the evaporator. This affects the efficiency of the machine and is a source of noise pollution. On the other hand, the machine and the supply ducts must be designed to be as compact as possible and there is therefore no possibility of having low curvature connection curves at each of the changes of direction. An object of the present invention is to substantially reduce the turbulence of air in the supply ducts and in the conveyor upstream of the evaporator. Another object of the present invention is to reduce the noise of the air in these same ducts and conveyor.

Another object, at least of certain variations of the present invention, is to substantially improve the distribution uniformity of the air flow at the inlet of the evaporator. Another object, at least of certain variations of the present invention, is to substantially improve the efficiency of the heat pump. Another object, at least of certain variants of the present invention, is to substantially improve the cooling capacity of the heat pump.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon reading the following description of an embodiment of the invention in accordance with the main claims and certain preferred variants in accordance with the dependent claims, all illustrated only by way of example and not limitation, in the accompanying drawings, in which: - Figure 1 shows the upper part of a heat pump adapted to use the teachings 3033399 4 of the present invention and comprising supply ducts and expulsion of air; FIG. 2, detailed from (a) to (e), represents, on graphs consisting of profiles and topographies, the possible distributions of the air velocity in different parts of a duct, starting from a first portion upstream of a rectilinear zone (a) of any length to a successive portion in correspondence of a bend (b) to the other following rectilinear portions (c), (d) and (e) in downstream of the elbow and at increasing distances from the latter; the profiles indicate the evolution of the velocities on the plane of symmetry of the duct and the topographies, with different intensities of changes from light to dark velocities on the plane orthogonal to the axis of the duct; - Figure 3 schematically shows a possible conveyor according to the state of the prior art, observed in section along a vertical plane of symmetry; FIG. 4 diagrammatically represents a conveyor embodiment according to the invention, seen in section along a vertical plane of symmetry; FIG. 5 schematically represents a conveyor according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, always observed in section along a vertical plane of symmetry; FIGS. 6a and 6b show a possible distribution of the average air velocities at the inlet of the conveyor respectively by means of a topography on a plane orthogonal to the direction of said velocities, as well as by through the drawing of their profile along a plane parallel to the same speeds; Figure 6.a further shows details of means according to the invention; Fig. 7 shows a detail of Fig. 5; FIG. 8 represents in axonometry the same conveyor of FIG. 5; - Figure 9 shows, in section along the plane of symmetry of the supply duct of Figure 1, possible air deflectors according to the invention placed in a curve in said duct; FIG. 10 schematically represents a second conveyor embodiment according to the invention in section with respect to its vertical plane of symmetry; - Figure 11 shows schematically, in more detail, the same conveyor of Figure 15 and two other sections on orthogonal planes to the air inlet and outlet directions of said conveyor. It will be understood that any of the spatial terms, such as "up / down", which may be used hereinafter, refer to the position of the elements which will be described under operating conditions, while the relative position terms such as "upstream / downstream", "preceded / following" refers to the order in which the described elements meet the air fed to the evaporator under operating conditions. All arrows indicate the direction of the air path to the evaporator. The invention is hereinafter described with reference to a preferred embodiment of the evaporator of a heat pump of either the air-to-air or air-water type. FIG. 1 shows the upper part 1 (or head 1) of an HP heat pump (indifferently of the air-air or air-water type) installed in a room V. Next to the head 1, a duct 1 Feeder 2 guides the air drawn into the external medium E of the HP heat pump. An expulsion duct 3 captures the air from the HP heat pump after it flows through the evaporator and returns it to the external environment E.

The supply duct 2 may be shown with a possible horizontal portion 201 beginning in the external medium E followed by a bend 202 in turn followed by a vertical portion 203 connected to the heat pump HP.

FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 of the head 1 schematically show some of the main elements of the HP heat pump, that is the casing 101, the evaporator 102, the front of the evaporator 106, substantially plane, from which the air enters the evaporator, the fan 103, the conveyor 104, the air inlet 105 of the conveyor 104. The conveyor 104, known per se, can be defined as a chamber of connection between the air inlet 105 and the evaporator 102 having the purpose of distributing the air flow as uniformly as possible On the front of the evaporator 106, which is rectangular. At this uniform distribution, significant obstacles such as changes in the direction of the air flow, the sectional changes between the air inlet 105 and the front of the evaporator 106, and finally the angular shape, are opposed. of the conveyor 104 which, according to the state of the prior art, as shown in FIG. 3, is simply a volume which occupies a major part of the internal space of the envelope 101. A swirling is generated only in part, by the change of direction and of the internal section of the conveyor 104 because it also depends on the presence or not of the supply duct 2 and its shape, it also depends on the presence or absence of the inside of the conveyor 104. such a conduit 2, suitable means of air guide provided by the invention to reduce swirling. Therefore, for purposes of the invention, even the supply duct 2, at least 5 from the last elbow 202 before the conveyor, must be considered, when present, as an essential part of the HP heat pump. for effects, modifiable according to the invention, that it produces downstream. With reference to FIG. 2, the quality of the air inside a supply duct 2 which is valid at least for air flows in the heat pumps is now examined qualitatively. HP for domestic applications (100 700 m3 / h) and with typical pipe diameters (100 mm 15 200 mm). The resulting velocities include an always turbulent airflow. In a circular duct, in a rectilinear part with a stabilized airflow, which does not feel any disturbances undergone upstream, the profile of the average velocities is that of FIG. 2.a: centrally, the profile is almost flat then it decreases almost linearly on the sides by edge effect. A curve 202 (FIG. 2.b) by the presence of a bend 202 disrupts the flow; in the case of a 90 ° curve, the streamlines of the fluids are accelerated in the extrados of the curve and slowed down in the underside, generating at the exit of the curve 202, an average velocity profile, as shown . At the distance LO = 0 from the curve 202, a decentered velocity peak of the duct axis and a low velocity zone are observed in addition to the eddies referenced 204. The corresponding topography shows how the acceleration in the extrados Curve 202 creates a "horseshoe" redistribution with a concavity to the intrados. This effect is mainly marked for increasing flow rates and decreasing diameters. For increasing distances from curve 202 (L1> LO), the flow imbalance tends to decrease with flux redistribution as shown in Figure 2.c, although there are eddies 204. For L2 > Li (see Figure 2.d), the flow is redistributed even more with a velocity profile which tends towards a turbulent flow, already seen in Figure 2.a, but which is effectively reached only at a marked distance L3 L1 of curve 202 (see Figure 2.e).

It is defined as "flow density", the air flow per unit area of the section of a generic duct orthogonal to the direction of the air flow, it is observed that such a density of flow is endowed with symmetry central to the axis of a duct, in particular circular, where the air flow is not disturbed by curves upstream 202 (see Figures 2.a and 2.e) whereas, in more vortices, there is a pronounced central asymmetry in the parts influenced by a curve 202 upstream.

Depending on the distance LO, L1, L2 or L3 between the bend 202 and the air inlet 105, the distribution of air velocities with respect to the air inlet 105 is represented by one of distributions observed in Figures 2.b through 2.e. The narrow spaces generally available in the installation part V make more likely the strongly unbalanced distributions of FIGS. 2.b or 2.c respectively relative to the distances LO and L1 of the elbow 202 with a consequent pronounced imbalance of the flux to the Such an inhomogeneous flow at the inlet of the heat pump HP implies a very uneven flow density at the inlet of the evaporator 102, resulting in its unbalanced operation. As will become apparent to those skilled in the art, this gives rise to a temperature distribution of the inhomogeneous air passing through the evaporator 102; this results in a reduction of the cooling capacity and the efficiency of the latter. Indeed, this leads us to work at lower temperatures than theoretically possible for each given air temperature at the inlet and / or it is not possible to absorb heat in some of its areas. Another consequence of the inhomogeneous flow is the creation of localized turbulence in the conveyor 104 with an increase in noise. However, the non-uniformity of flow density and vortex formation, as already mentioned, is observed also inside the conveyor 104, regardless of the flow density at the inlet of the latter, not only by the substantially 90 ° deviation experienced by the air when it enters the vertical from above, but also by the variation of the shape of the almost always circular flow section at the air inlet 105 and 25 rectangularly on the front of the evaporator 106 and diverging more and more from the air inlet 105 to the front of the evaporator 106. Therefore, the non-uniformity of flow density on the front of the evaporator 106 Evaporator 106 takes place even in the absence of feed duct 2 with or without curves or elbows 202 and even if the air does not penetrate vertically in conveyor 4, but orthogonally with respect to the front of the conveyor. evaporator 106 (see Figure 10).

According to the invention, the problem of nonuniformity of flow density or at least air swirling is partially solved by adopting a conical shape for conveyor 104 which, as shown in FIGS. , 7, 8 and 10, passes continuously and progressively through the circular air inlet section 105 to the corresponding outlet section of the rectangular evaporator 102. According to a possible variant of the invention (see FIG. 9) that can be used in combination with any one of the other variants, it is expected that at least the optional bend 202 immediately upstream of the air inlet 105 of the conveyor 104, is provided with a deflector 206 comprising fins 207 for reducing the swirling of the air inside and downstream of said bend 202. Such fins 207 are blades: - inside the elbow 202, - orthogonal to the plane of symmetry of the elbow 202, 20 - with an arcuate section concentric with the curvature of the elbow 202, - spaced apart at a distance suitable for guiding the flow of air in passages 208 defined by them.

Due to the deflector 206, the airflow exits through the substantially undisturbed bend 202 in a velocity profile which, independent of the edge effect on all the walls of both the bend 202 and the fins 207, is substantially and substantially immediately that 30 which, in the absence of deflector 206, is taken by air only at said distance L3 by the bend 202. Finally, the profile of the air velocities obtained at the entrance of Air 105 is substantially that free of vortices as shown in FIG. 2.e.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, a reduction of the vortices inside the conveyor 104 is obtained, as illustrated with reference to FIGS. 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10, by endowing said conveyor 104 with a plurality of flow guides 107 suitable for forming channels 108 which guide the flow of air from the air inlet 105 where they have a surface inlet section Ai towards the front of the evaporator 106 where they have a surface exit section Si.

Hereinafter, a conveyor 104 provided with said channels 108 will be said conveyor 104 with channels. Preferably, such flux guides 107: are parallel to the predominant direction of the air flow at the inlet of the channel conveyor 104 at their leading edge 112; are orthogonal to the front of the evaporator 106 at their trailing edge 113. Preferably, for reasons of construction, such flow guides 107, the outermost of which may be two opposing walls 109 of the conveyor 104 with channels are thin plates which: - start with their leading edge 112 upstream, substantially through the air inlet 105, to their trailing edge 113 downstream towards the front of the evaporator 106; extend transversely, that is to say orthogonally to the plane of symmetry of the conveyor 104 by a width Li (see FIGS. 8 and 11) to the sides 110 of said conveyor 104 with 30 channels; - are each distant from the next by an average distance Di. The shape of the section of each channel 108 and the corresponding surface A 1 vary from upstream to downstream along the flux guides 107 with respect to said input values A 1 and output Si, but preferably in a progressive way, without discontinuity. Preferably and where possible, the section of each channel 108 is elongated in the transverse direction; in other words, preferably and where possible, the average distance Di between two consecutive flux guides 107 is less than its width Li. This is to limit the formation of vortices.

The means according to the invention illustrated heretofore are suitable for eliminating the swirling of air in a progressively more efficient manner, used separately or together. Nevertheless, at the level of the front of the evaporator 106, a non-uniform flow of air can flow in terms of flow density, including flow guides 107, because the air velocity at the exit of the channels 108 may be different from one channel to another.

According to another improvement, at least some flux guides 107, except the two outermost ones if they consist of two opposite walls 109 of the channel conveyor 104, can stop at a distance from the front of the evaporator 106 sufficient to form plenums (not shown in the figures) between the trailing edges 113 and the front of the evaporator 106 in which the different speeds have the opportunity to equalize, while giving rise to some swirling movements.

According to another preferred improvement, the flux guides 107 end substantially in contact with the front of the evaporator 106 with sections of the channels 108, at the trailing edges 113, of the exit zone Si so that, in correspondence, the air flow density is substantially equal for each channel and therefore there is a supply at the same flow density in each zone of the front of the evaporator 106. This is equivalent to saying that of all the channels 108, the air must exit at the same speed.

Since the widths Li of each channel 108 need not be selected, but very conveniently, from the largest possible from the air inlet 105 (with an upper limit imposed substantially only by the dimensional constraints of the the evaporator 102 and the head 1 of the HP heat pump), the correct measurement of each input zone Ai substantially depends on the appropriate choice of each corresponding average distance Di, next to the leading edges 112. Once the measurement of each input zone Ai established and therefore the air flow entering it, provided that relative to the trailing edges 113, there is a substantially uniform flow density for all the channels 108, the Corresponding output areas If, as mentioned, it is understood that, subsequently, advantageously the variation of the section of each channel 108 from the input to the output, is progressive. Figure 6 shows a simple way to satisfy such a condition. On the latter, there is shown a vertical portion 203 of a feed pipe 2 at a distance L1 of a bend 202 above, and therefore with significant differences in speed. At a distance slightly greater than L1, the vertical portion 203 is connected to the air inlet 105.

The sections of the channels 108 have, at the leading edges 112, a shape of circular segments between successive parallel ropes spaced from each other Di. The zones Al, A2, ..., Ai, ..., A6 of the sections are variable depending on the air velocity at the inlet, so that each channel 108 intercepts a flow of air equal. It is sufficient, at this stage, that the output zones Si are all equal to each other so as to supply the evaporator 102 uniformly. In this way, exit zones Si 5 are all identical in the same way simply by putting the widths Li at the trailing edge. all identical to the width of the front of the evaporator 106 and therefore the distances Di identical. This simple solution may, however, not be the best from the point of view of fluid-dynamic efficiency, because it could have distinctly diverging channels 108 (those which start with the very small input area Ai because they intercept the where it has the highest velocities) with possible vortex formations and on the other hand also convergent channels. A better method for selecting the sections of the channels 108 is to require that in each of these, the area of the section be a constant fraction of the total flow area from the inlet to the outlet. In principle, let the sum of the output areas Si be taken from the sum of the input surfaces Ai and S, we put, for each nth channel 108, n channels 108, Ai / A = Si / S and the condition that such Ratio is maintained throughout the development of each channel in this way, channels 108 of uniformly divergent sections are obtained in a uniform manner where A <S. Subsequently, it is possible to assign to each ratio Ai / A a always the same value or preferably different for one or more channels 108 to obtain channels 108, whose section surfaces are a main part of this choice for the other channels; in this way, channels 108 of larger cross-section may be provided where air guidance is less necessary (because the speed is less and / or subject to less sudden changes in direction). In general, under the same conditions of distribution of the air velocities at the air inlet 105, an alternative quantity of choice is of course possible, varying at least both the number of flow guides 107 and the distances Di between these ,. FIG. 7, which shows on a scale, a possible concrete distribution of flux guides 107 according to the invention, represents a solution in which the distances Di between two successive guide walls 109 are, contrary to the preceding example, clearly different even in the vicinity of the evaporator 102 and thus the exit zones Si are just as different and this according to a sequence of distances Di not intuitive but which, in reality, takes into account a multiplicity of geometric and fluidodynamic factors that those skilled in the art are well acquainted with, such as, in a non-exhaustive manner: the constraints of widths Li placed from the diameter of the air inlet 105 and from the divergent development of the sides 110; the pressure drops along the surfaces of each channel 108; the limits of the degree of divergence of each channel 108 to prevent vein detachments; the distance limits Di to avoid the 30 vortex formations; the practical limits of the number of channels 108; the variation of the distribution of the air velocities at the entrance in reasonable margins (for example as a function of the maximum and defined minimum limits of the distance L of an elbow 202 of the air intake; ); - etc. Such conditions are all interdependent and the numerous solutions are obtained only in a recurrent manner with fluid mechanics simulations on a computer through one or more specialized software. For example, the structure of FIG. 7 has been discovered using the following well-known software: Ansys Meshing, ANSYS CFX, ModeFRONTIER, on whose services it is not necessary to expand since they are known to those skilled in the art of fluid mechanics.

Also, the quantification of the air velocity distribution at different points in a duct downstream of a bend with or without deflector 206 and facing the air inlet 105 can be carried out either experimentally or using 20 fluid mechanics simulators. If necessary, even the design of the deflector 206 can use the software mentioned above. It being understood that, according to the preferred embodiment of the invention, the condition sine qua non issued to determine the shape of the channels 108 lies in the fact that from these, the air leaves the evaporator 102 with a variable flow density from one zone to another within predetermined margins, retained as acceptable, where such margins substantially depend on the predictable or acceptable range of variation of the air velocity distribution at the air inlet 105. Since it has been seen that the distribution of the air velocity is closely related to the distance L of a bend 202 of the air inlet 105, the range of 3033399 Predictable or acceptable variation in the air velocity distribution at the air inlet 105 is equivalent to establishing a predictable or acceptable range of variation in the distance L from said elbow 202 of said air inlet 105. Of course , if the predictable range of variation for ladit If the distance to obtain a variable flow density from one zone to another within acceptable margins is excessive, the conveyor 104 with channels 10 can be provided in several versions, each optimized for a particular range of variation of said distance L. However, it has also been seen that the use of a deflector 206 within the bend 202 closer to the air inlet 105 substantially equalizes the speed distribution at said inlet, regardless of the importance of said distance L, therefore the joint use of such a deflector 206 and channels 108 allows, for each HP heat pump model, a single version of conveyor 104 to be sufficient, which is equivalent to say that the predictable range of variation is also acceptable. Such a single version of channel conveyor 104 may also be usable in the case where the air entering through the air inlet 105 does not come from a supply duct 2, but from the installation room of FIG. the heat pump V. The invention naturally applies to the conveyors 104 with any relative position between the air inlet 105 and the front of the evaporator 106; in particular, the invention, as described, applies to the case in which the air enters horizontally in the conveyor 104, as in the case of FIG. 10.

By applying the invention, it has been found experimentally that the COP (coefficient of performance) of a heat pump with air evaporator can be improved up to 16%.

It is obvious that the invention, although described only with reference to the case of an evaporator 102 preceded by a conveyor 104 of a heat pump (HP), can be applied to any conveyor 104: associated with a heat exchanger 102 between air and other means, - wherein said conveyor 104 is for guiding the inlet of said air to the front of the exchanger 106 on the air side of said heat exchanger 102, - said the front of the exchanger being substantially flat, - in particular such a heat exchanger 102 may be the evaporator or the condenser of a heat pump.

Claims (16)

REVENDICATIONS1. Conveyor (104) associated with a heat exchanger (102) between the air and another medium and for guiding the inlet of said air to the front of the exchanger (106) on the air side of said heat exchanger ( 102), said front of the exchanger (106) being substantially planar, characterized in that: said conveyor (104) has a conical shape which passes continuously and progressively from the circular air inlet section (105) at the corresponding outlet section of said heat exchanger (102). 2. Conveyor (104) according to the preceding claim, characterized in that: said conveyor (104) is provided with a plurality of flow guides (107) suitable for forming channels (108) which guide the flow of air from said air inlet (105) where they have a surface inlet section Ai to said front of the exchanger (106) where they have a surface exit section Si. 3. Conveyor (104) according to claim 25, characterized in that said flow guides (107): - are parallel to the predominant direction of the air flow at the inlet of said conveyor (104) at their edge attacking (112); Are orthogonal to said front of the exchanger (106) at their trailing edge (113). 4. Conveyor (104) according to any one of claims 2 to 3, characterized in that said flow guides (107): - start from their said leading edge (112) substantially up to their said air inlet (105); extend transversely to the sides (110) of said conveyor (104). The conveyor (104) according to any one of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that said sections of each of said channels (108) are elongated in a transverse direction. 6. Conveyor (104) according to any one of claims 2 to 5, characterized in that at least some guides of said flow guides (107), except the outermost if they consist of two walls (109) opposite said conveyor (104), stop at a distance from said front of the exchanger (106) sufficient to form plenums between said trailing edges (113) and the front of the exchanger (106). 20 Conveyor (104) according to any one of the preceding claims, except claim 6, characterized in that said flux guides (107) end substantially in contact with said front of the exchanger (106) with sections of said channels. (108) at said trailing edges (113) of the outlet surface Si so that, in correspondence, the air flow density is substantially equal for each of said channels (108). 8. Conveyor (104) according to the preceding claim, characterized in that said sections of said channels (108) have said leading edges (112), surfaces Al, A2, ..., Ai, ..., A6 variables depending on the air velocity at the inlet, so that each of said channels (108) captures an identical air flow. Conveyor (104) according to claim 7, characterized in that said sections of said channels (108) are from the inlet to the outlet, a constant fraction Ai / A = Si / S of the total flow area. 10 10. Conveyor (104) according to the preceding claim, characterized in that said constant fractions Ai / A = Si / S of the total flow area have a different value for one or more of said channels (108), in particular to be able to Making said channels (108) of upper flow section where it is considered that it is less necessary to guide the air. 11. Conveyor (104) according to the preceding claim 20, characterized in that the distribution of said flux guides (107) is that shown in scale in Figure 7. 12. Conveyor (104) according to any one of claims 7 to 11, characterized in that said conveyor (104) is provided in several versions, each optimized for a particular range of variation of air velocities to input and / or for a particular range of variation of the distance L 30 of any bend (202) of said air inlet (105). 13. Air-to-air or air-water heat pump (HP) in which, to bring the air constituting the heat source for the evaporator (102) to the front (106) of said evaporator (102), provision is made a conveyor (104), characterized in that it comprises a conveyor according to one or more of claims 1 to 12. 14. Air-to-air or air-water heat pump (HP) according to the preceding claim, characterized in that it is adapted, upstream of said conveyor (104), with a supply duct (2) comprising at least an elbow (202) followed by a horizontal duct portion (201), said elbow (202) being provided with a baffle (206) comprising fins (207) for reducing the swirling of the air at the interior and downstream of said elbow (202). 15. Air-to-air or air-water heat pump (HP) in which, to bring the air constituting the heat source for the condenser (102) to the front (106) 'of said condenser (102), provision is made a conveyor (104), characterized in that it comprises a conveyor according to one or more of claims 1 to 12. 16. heat pump (HP) air-air or air-water according to the preceding claim, characterized in that it adapted, upstream of said conveyor (104), with a supply duct (2) comprising at least one elbow 25 (202) followed by a horizontal duct portion (201), said elbow (202) being provided with a baffle (206) including vanes (207) for reducing swirling of the air within and downstream of said bend (202).