HPC Newsletter

In this issue

Retrofi t heat pumps for buildings
In this issue, a number of topical articles show examples on how heat pumps can contribute to less energy use in buildings. Not only the heat pump itself, but also the distribution system indoor is an important factor when a heat pump is replacing another heating system. This is exemplified in one of the topical articles.

Non-topical articles in this issue coves heat pumps in household tumble dryers as well as heat pumps in district heating systems.

Also take a closer look on the 9th IEA Heat Pump Conference that is announced
in this issue and book May 20-22, 2008 in your calendars.

Enjoy your reading!
Roger Nordman
Editor

Heat Pump News

Germany's EU presidency focuses on EE, RES and climate change
Energy efficiency, renewables and climate change will top the agenda of the German EU presidency. Germany will take over the EU presidency from Finland in January 2007. German chancellor Angela Merkel announced that the German EU presidency will promote efforts to reach an agreement on what is to follow the Kyoto Protocol.

Source: www.europa.eu

ASERCOM Energy Efficiency Award 2006

The ASERCOM Energy Efficiency Award 2006 granted for a new control of refrigerant flow.

Innovative developments for energy saving in the field of refrigeration, heat pumps and air conditioning, that promise to be successfully marketed, can candidate for the ASERCOM Award.

The 2006 price winning company is the Swedish Bubble Expansion Valve BXV(R)AB, for an innovative expansion device, affecting a better overall refrigerant heat transfer in the evaporator, and thus a better system efficiency.

Lage interest for EFFSYS 2
Sweden

The Swedish energy administration has launched the EFFSYS 2 research program. The initiative that builds on the former EFFSYS program is aimed to make heat pumping and refrigeration technology more efficient. In this respect, both components and systems are meant to become more efficient. The total budget for this program is 70 MSEK, with 28 MSEK from government, and 42 MSEK from industry.
When the call was closed, more than 40 ideas had been submitted, which the chairman of the program, Professro Erik Granryd was very pleased with.

Source: Energi och Miljö #9, 2006 (in Swedish)

Topical Articles

Fort Polk Installation Demonstrates Retrofi t Potential of Geothermal Heat Pumps
A recent independent study prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Hughes, et al, 1998) demonstrates that geothermal heat pumps (GHPs) provide substantial benefi ts to the end user, the electric utility industry and the environment. A comprehensive 4,003-home retrofi t project was conducted at Fort Polk, Louisiana where the existing heating and cooling systems (560 gas furnace/electric air-conditioner systems and 3443 air-source heat pump systems) were replaced by GHPs with desuperheater water heaters. In addition existing incandescent lighting fi xtures were replaced by high-effi ciency fl uorescent or compact fl uorescent fi xtures, and existing shower heads were replaced by low-fl ow shower heads. Evaluation of this massive retrofi t showed that it reduced electrical consumption in the 4003 residences by 26 million kWh (33%) while altogether eliminating consumption of 27,425,000 MJ of natural gas. Peak demand was reduced by 7.5 MW (43%), and the power factor was
increased from 0.52 to 0.62 . Emissions of CO2 have been reduced by an estimated 20,321,000 kg per year at the Ft Polk site. The GHPs alone are credited with 66% of the electricity savings and all of the natural gas savings (Hughes and Shonder, 1998) accounting for about 14,900,000 kg of the total annual CO2 emissions reduction

Retrofit Heat Pumps for Building

In the majority of European countries, the present heat pump market for space and water heating and cooling is largely concentrated on new buildings, particularly single and two-family houses. However, there is a very large potential in the retrofi t market for replacement of old conventional oil-, gas- and coal-fired heating systems with high energy-efficient and environmentally sound heat pumps

High temperature heat pump for the retrofit market in Franc
The retrofit of heating systems represents a significant market in France. Nowadays, high-temperature heat pumps make an interesting alternative to boilers, with real advantages in term of CO2 emission and energy efficiency. Another advantage of heat pumps lies in the energy that can be saved over a year. The HSPF (heat seasonal performance factor) is therefore the most appropriate parameter for relating to actual heating energy bills. HSPF is the ratio of the total heat delivered over the heating season to the total energy input over the heating season. In the study, field test results on a French house will be presented, as results of simulations calculating the HSPF.

Air-to-air heat pumps in Norway
In Norway, air-to-air heat pumps have become the most popular way for house-owners to reduce their energy bills. By the end of 2006, heat pumps of this type will make up about 13 % of all those that have been installed, with almost all having been installed during the last five years.

Air-to-air heat pumps evaluated for nordic circumstances
Twelve variable-speed capacity controlled air-to-air heat pumps have been evaluated by laboratory measurements and the results have been compared to similar investigations made in 2001 (variable-speed capacity control) and 1991 (single-speed compressors). The heat pumps were evaluated in terms of efficiency, performance of defrost system and ability to operate in a cold climate. The results show that heat pumps have become more efficient since 1991 and 2001. On average, the coefficient of performance (COP) has increased by 7-24 % since 1991. The defrost systems have also improved, although there are still systems that in practice operate under simple time control, and thus perform unnecessarily many defrost cycles, which reduces performance and probably also equipment life.