What are they and how heat pumps work
Reduce the cost of heating bills is the goal of all Italian families. The selection of plants and terminals more efficient, allowing you to spend less with an eye to avoiding unnecessary and reduce polluting emissions, is very wide and varied. They range from condensing boilers, which are replacing traditional ones, to woody biomass plants up to fireplaces and radiant panels and fan coils.
Among the solutions available there is also that of heat pumps, considered by many as a solution with great prospects. These systems draw the indirect solar energy present in air, water or land and convert it into thermal energy to meet the comfort of the building, both summer and winter. To do this, the pump consumes a quantity of primary energy lower than that of traditional systems, in average 50% less.
In the case of electric pumps, only about 25% of electricity can cover 100% of the thermal energy demand for air conditioning (source SOUL Co.Aer). And here is the convenience: less consumption means less cost and less time in the bill of depreciation of the plant, which on average is around 3 years.
In addition, these technologies can also be used for summer cooling (ie a single system for multiple functions) and integrate other renewable sources, such as solar thermal and photovoltaic, to increase the efficiency of the system.
Efficiency and savings
The combination with photovoltaic and solar thermal systems, in fact, allows the use of radiation from the sun even in direct form: solar thermal covers most of the needs of domestic hot water and in some cases also offers a supplement to heating and photovoltaics, producing electricity, makes the combined system operating with 100% renewable energy.
"The systems heat pump annual cycle are complete systems that use solar energy in all its forms. There are many real plant data that confirm the energy savings achievable and payback times, which in the case allow you to come back in 1-3 years of any higher initial costs and have considerable savings for the remaining 12-15 year cycle life of the plant. These systems are in line with the trend of the future that sees intelligent buildings, which consume little energy thanks to more efficient building envelopes and systems that generate year-round comfort mainly using renewable energy. "
To get an idea of the savings from a glance at the data of operation of an installation in a detached house, a system that takes advantage from 75% to 100% renewable energy to meet the needs of heating, cooling, air purification and renewal and domestic hot water.
"In three years we have seen a reduction of 41% of the average annual consumption of primary energy and indirect emissions of CO2 and less than 36% of the average annual consumption compared to the traditional system with boiler, split and plate heat exchanger considered as an alternative in the design phase. The heat pumps at the base of the system, integrate the kettle for the production of sanitary hot water and all the elements for connection to solar thermal panels so as to also exploit the direct solar energy for the production of hot water ". Furthermore, the control unit connected to the system allows programming hourly zone by zone, the customization of comfort levels and optimizing the use of energy.
In Italy, the Mediterranean climate favors further a housing-based systems heat pump for the significant contribution of renewable energy that can offer. To encourage this type of building are springing virtuous examples of careful design of the building facility, which finally allows low implementation costs for homes in Class A or A +.
One example comes from the redevelopment of the residential complex Borgo Morandi in Solapur, where the installation of the pump air-water supply, has resulted in the Class A + KlimaHouse. Houses, in fact, consume 50 to 80% less than with conventional combustion systems.
25/05/2012
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Translated via software
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Source:
Italian version of CercaGeometra.it