Heat Pumps — Introduction (VIDEO)

February 10th, 2013 by Zachary Shahan

The renewable energy graduate student who got me to go give a guest lecture on renewable energy to his class just recently passed along some useful videos on different types of clean technology. These are introductory videos, but they’re not as introductory as our typical blog posts about such topics — they’re each about 30 minutes to 1 hour in length. Here’s the first one, on the topic of heat pumps:

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Tags: ductless heat pumps, geothermal heat pumps, ground source heat pumps, heat pumps, leonardo energy

About the Author

Zachary Shahan is tryin' to help society help itself (and other species) one letter at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of EV Obsession, Gas2, Solar Love, Planetsave, or Bikocity; or as president of Important Media. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, energy storage, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media: ZacharyShahan.com. Zach has long-term investments in TSLA, SCTY, FSLR, SPWR, SEDG, & ABB. After years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in these companies and feels like they are good companies to invest in.

Tom G.

If you are one of the several million people that live in the Southwestern part of the U.S. you most likely have an air source heat pump for the heating and cooling your home. If you have a newer home in California it will most likely have a heat pump. If you live in the Southeastern part of the U.S. you will also most likely be using a heat pump. In these areas air source heat pumps are quite common since normal low air temperatures seldom drop below about 20 degrees F At any temperature above that air source heat pumps work really well.

If you live in a cooler area of the country many people are finding that ground source heat pumps work really well and often have efficiency levels that put 92% efficient gas furnaces to shame. Using a ground source heat pump for both heating and cooling eliminates the concern regarding low temperature operation.

It is also true that many of our air source heat pumps manufactured in the U.S. have a long way to go when if comes to efficiency. Heat pumps manufactured In European and Asian countries have been using variable speed compressor technology for years which significantly improves efficiency. In the U.S. we are still manufacturing heat pumps and air conditioning units using 1950’s start and stop technology.
- Bob_Wallace
  
  I’m not seeing much good information about ground source heat pumps. Especially cost and payback time.
  
  Does the industry have an organization that deals with issues like public information?
MrEnergyCzar

Most people don’t even know you can get an energy star electric heat pump hot water heater and save $350 per year in costs. I got one of the first ones a few years back, here’s a video of what it looks like etc…

http://youtu.be/pxiLYA6yXQ0

MrEnergyCzar
StefanoR99

I spend a lot of time in both the USA and Europe and I have to say I’m surprised how far the US is behind on heat pump technology. It’s an ideal companion to solar, yet no one seems to know about them!

Panasonic make a great range of heat pumps – the Aquarea line – yet they are not for sale in the US market at all?

It would be great to have a list of heat pump manufacturers and vendors along with fair market pricing for those looking to install one of these in their home in the US.
jburt56

An important but not very well known resource.