A house is maintained at a temperature TH by a heat pump that is powered by an electric motor. The outside air at TC is used as the low-temperature TER. Heat loss from the house to the surroundings is directly proportional to the temperature difference and is given by Q⋅ loss = U(TH -TC).
(a) Determine the minimum electric power to drive the heat pump as a function of the given variables.
(b) The electric power consumption is calculated to be 10 kW for TH = 20 deg-C and TH = 10 deg-C. Determine the power consumption if the outside temperature drops to 0 deg-C.