This paper aims to prolong the heat pump frost time and reduce its growth with heat recovery facility, which should mix the exhausted indoor and outdoor air before entering the evaporator. An ideal mathematic model is developed for heat transfer, frost generation and airside pressure drop. The properties of the mixture would be obtained by solving the mass and energy conservation equations. A parametric analysis is performed to investigate the effects of air inlet temperature, relative humidity and air mass flow rate on total heat transfer coefficient, frost thickness and airside pressure drop, respectively. The results show that rationalizing the ratio of indoor and outdoor air could prolong frosting time and reduce the frost thickness greatly. The total heat transfer coefficient, frost thickness and airside pressure drop increase monotonically with time going, but are not proportional. Decreasing the mixture inlet air temperature and relative humidity could essentially reduce frost growth on the tube surfaces. This can also be observed when increasing the air mass flow rate. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.