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When it comes to home appliances, would you agree that the more efficient, the better?
Installing an air source heat pump for heating and air conditioning may be the best solution for keeping your home comfortable year round.
During warmer months, an American standard heat pump works as an air conditioner, extracting heat from inside the home and transferring it to the outdoor air. In colder weather, however, the process reverses.
The air to air heat pump unit collects heat from the outdoor air to transfer inside your home. Cool or cold outside air, nevertheless still contains some heat. When there's not enough heat in the outside air to meet the demand of the thermostat setting, an electric heater supplements the outdoor air to warm the home.
Instead of a furnace that turns fossil fuels or electricity into heat, the a c heat pump collects heat that already exists in the outdoor air. It's a matter of producing versus collecting. A heat pump produces two to three times more heat than the energy it uses, and today's heat pumps produce warm and comfortable air.
"Air source heat pumps are efficient, quiet and provide significant savings, says Buddy Smith of Russell's Heating and Cooling. The amount a consumer can save depends on many factors, including building temperature, construction quality and electric rates."
A 2 stage heat pump also produces savings while cooling a home. A SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio) rating measures cooling efficiency. A higher SEER number produces greater savings. A SEER of 12.00 to 13.00 is typical in homes over eight or ten years old, and a new, higher efficiency a c heat pump can be as much as 50 percent more efficient.
If a consumer's non-electric furnace is still working, an add-on ac heat pump is an effective option. A dual-fuel system shares the heating load, but never at the same time.
Each system operates when it is the most cost effective. The air to air heat pump will be the primary heating and cooling system. However, when the temperature drops below the heat pump's 'set-point' (the point at which the heat pump no longer is the most efficient source of heat) the furnace will take over until the temperature rises enough for the air source heat pump to operate more efficiently.
"Heat pumps are efficient, quiet and provide significant savings," - "the amount a consumer can save depends on many factors, including building temperature, construction quality and electric rates. "We get to capture the sweet spot of efficiency and comfort for each system. This is a very popular system and most of our customers choose to go this route."
Heat pumps use a refrigerative system to move heat from one place to another, usually concentrating it (raising the temperature) in the process. Air-source heat pumps extract heat from the outside air and concentrate it into usable heat, which might be used to heat a room directly or to heat water in a hydronic system.
A variation is the ground-source heat pump, which instead extracts heat from the ground (or a body of water if available). It is important to review heat pumps to see which system is most practical for your year-round needs.
The advantage to this is that the ground is a more stable source of heat and is usually at a higher temperature than ambient air in winter, so system efficiency can be higher.
However, given the south's mild winters, the greater cost of installing a ground-source A C heat pump (due to the requirement of boring many deep holes or digging deep trenches) may be hard to justify considering A C heat pump prices. While in the north, this could be a viable long-term solution to your heating needs. Continued below...
Heat pumps use a closed system that contains a liquid with a low boiling point, called the refrigerant. A compressor adds energy to the refrigerant as well as increasing the pressure, forming a superheated vapour. This enters a set of coils known as the condenser where the vapour forms back into a liquid, giving up some of its heat energy in the process.
It then flows through an expansion valve where the pressure is abruptly reduced, causing some of the refrigerant to form a vapour. It then flows into another coil called the evaporator where it absorbs heat, flows back to the compressor and the cycle repeats.
In a cooling-only air conditioner, or a fridge or freezer, the evaporator is inside the house or fridge cabinet and the condenser is outside. This is why the back of the fridge gets warm. In a heating-only heat pump, such as some hydronic systems, the condenser is inside (in the storage tank) and the evaporator outside.
In a reverse-cycle system, the system uses a reversible expansion valve and so the inside cooling coils can be either evaporator for cooling or condenser for heating. The same applies for the outdoor coils. This applies not only to reverse-cycle air conditioners, but also to hydronic systems that can heat and cool.
Hydronic/hot water heat pumps and reverse-cycle air conditioners use a refrigerant to do the work of moving heat from one place to another.
In the past, all sorts of environmentally damaging fluids were used, including CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons, the ozone destroyers), HCFCs (hydrochlorofluorocarbons-betterfor the ozone layer, but strong greenhouse gases) and many others. For a full list of the many different possible refrigerants, see en.wikipedia. org/wiki/List_of_refrigerants.
The most common refrigerant in domestic heat pump air conditioners seems to be R410a, which is a mixture of difluoromethane (CH2F2, called R32) and pentafluoroethane (CHF2CF3, called R125). While it is ozone-layer friendly, it has a high global warming potential (GWP) estimated at around 1430 times that of CO2. Some systems also use R32, with a GWP of 675. See en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/List_of_refrigerants for more.
Similarly, hydronic heat pumps tend towards refrigerants such as R134a, ozone-layer friendly but with high global warming potential-they are strong greenhouse gases.
Domestic hot water heat pump systems, sometimes used in hydronic systems as mentioned earlier, have progressed towards more environmentally sound refrigerants such asC02 (R744).
When purchasing an American standard heat pump:
Operating an American standard heat pump:
Hydronic heating and hot water in one Heat pumps are the most efficient way to produce heat for your home, as well as producing domestic hot water.
The Siddons systems combine hydronic heating and domestic hot water production and, for the three-in-one units, even hydronic cooling for use in summer. All of the units only require single-phase power to produce hydronic heating or cooling.
The heat pumps can operate in ambient temperatures aslow as -15 °C, producing hot water for both hydronic space heating and domestic hot water up to 80 °C. The three-in-one units can operate in reverse-cycle and provide cold water at 8°C for efficient air conditioning through fan coil units.
The three models are the Home 2 in 1 High Temperature heat pump, which is designed to replace regular gas heaters, the Home 3 in 1 Monoblock EVI designed to boost performance in sub-zero temperatures, and the Home 3 in 1 DC Inverter Monoblock heat pump, which is ideally suited to PV power generating systems and for off-grid homes.
All models are designed to work with in-floor coils, radiant skirting boards, fan coils and conventional hydronic radiators, making them ideal for replacing existing gas heaters.
A heat pump heating and air conditioning system (HVAC) is very efficient. It works differently than a gas or electric furnace since, as the name implies, it works by moving heat instead of creating heat. Consider that heating and cooling typically account for at least half of energy bills. Depending on your current system, at optimal operations, a heat pump could save you up to 30% of your energy costs.
A reliable indicator of efficiency is COP or Coefficient of Performance, which in easier to understand terms means "how much do I get for my money?" To illustrate this, a common resistance electric heater has a COP of I while a heat pump that is installed and running correctly has a COP of between 3 and 4, In other words, for every dollar of energy you get put into the heating system, you get 3-4 times as much heating power out of it with an efficient heat pump system.
Since air source heat pumps work by moving heat into your home in the winter and out of your home in the summer, they don't work as efficiently in extremely cold climates. There is simply not enough heat in the outside air to efficiently heat the inside of a home - even with the best heat pump on the market.
Heat pumps are safe because since they move heat, not create it, there are no flames, hot surfaces and they do not need oxygen to burn, as with gas. Since no flame is produced, no exhaust flue is required and that reduces dangers of carbon monoxide fumes entering your home from the air conditioner/heat pump although proper venting will still be required for any other gas fired appliances.
There are no fume s or smoke added to the air, and air is filtered, which helps removed odors and dust, which can benefit people with allergies or asthma.
Heat pumps have been in common use for over 100 years. You thought they were a new invention? A refrigerator is one example of a heat pump, although it operates in only one direction.
Air conditioner/heat pump units offer lower maintenance - fewer parts Typical heat pumps installed are all in one units', no need for two systems, a furnace and a separate air conditioning unit. Rebates Brandy wine Valley Heating & Air Conditioning can help find manufacturers' rebates that may apply.
Are you interested in saving money? Don't wait until there is a repair or replacement needed. Begin the dialogue, ask questions including the cost to install a heat pump and become educated about the benefits of a air source heat pump HVAC system. Learn about the available rebates and savings before an emergency arises and a decision has to be made.
Take advantage of the current rebates and lower the overall cost of heating and cooling. Brandy wine Valley Heating & Air Conditioning can assess needs, provide options and pricing, determine eligibility for rebates, and provide a plan to make the switch when the time comes to replace, repair or upgrade.
Reverse-cycle air conditioners heat by circulating warm air, but the Daikin Nexura adds another heating method-a radiant panel on the front of the air-handling (indoor) unit.
The Nexura uses a floor-mounted air handling unit with an integrated radiant panel that can warm to 55 °C to provide some low-level radiant warmth.
It also has a warm start feature, where it won't start blowing air until the system has warmed up, so it isn't blowing cold air and causing a draught.
There are three models, with rated outputs of 3.4 kW, 4.5 kW and 5.8 kW of heating capacity (and 2.5,3.5 and 4.8 kW cooling respectively).
All units also have a boost mode, where they can produce more than their rated output for up to 20 minutes, for more rapid heating or cooling.
Rated EER and COP for the 2.5 kW unit are a respectable 4.63/4.67 respectively, with the larger units having lower ratings, so the smaller unit is the best buy for maximising efficiency.
The indoor unit measures 600 x 950 x 215 mm and the systems use R410A refrigerant,surprising considering Dailan's other units use the more environmentally friendly R32.
Finding a Daikin Nexura 'in the wild' in Northern America is rare at present, but one has recently been installed in a home in the south-western reigon of the USA.
The Nexura is a variant on the standard split system air conditioner that includes a radiant panel, powered by the heat pump.
The 2.5/3.4 kW unit was installed in April in a 16 m² bedroom (for a cost of $2900 installed), and owner Dalys has been using it for about a month, heading into winter.
The house has a five-year-old split system in the living area, but Dalys wanted a smaller, quieter option for the bedroom to replace a convection panel heater.
Compared to the panel heater, Dalys finds the Nexura to be "way superior." She says, "It properly heats the whole room and you don't need to be near the source to feel warm." It's also very quiet, particularly in radiant mode, when you can "barely hear it." Even with the fan on, she finds it quieter than her unit in the living area and likes the way it circulates air quite gently.
She tends to turn it on to boost with the fan in the morning for about 10 minutes, then switch back to radiant-only mode once it's up to temperature; and similarly in the evening. With the door open, it also heats the hallway and. in conjunction with the living area heater, balances out the home's warmth.
Dalys has found it very responsive and accurate: "when it says 21 °C, that's what it seems to be in the room." She also likes the look of it: "it's slim, unobstrusive and blends in." It's fair to say she's a fan!