A new system for energy-efficient indoor heating and cooling is being developed at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. Now a heat pump that utilizes heat energy bound to water has reached the tests, The Guardian news.
The heat pump was developed by a university-based startup company Seawarm.
The equipment can use seawater and water from rivers and ponds as its heat source. The technology is similar to air heat pumps.
I was involved in the planning Gus Fraser-Harris says that the system would be more expensive than a standard air source heat pump, but cheaper than a geothermal heat pump.
Seawarm’s system collects water in a large round tank with a volume of 3.7 cubic meters. The heat of natural water is recovered with ethylene glycol, which is familiar from, for example, car coolants. The liquid is then compressed in a heat pump.
The system is designed so that it can use a water source that is located at a maximum distance of 500 meters from the object to be heated. The tank has pipes installed in the shape of a loop that transport glycol.
The pool can be placed underground, which helps keep the temperature constant. Fraser-Harris says that a heat pump produces 350-400 percent more thermal energy than it consumes electricity.
As an invention, the heat pump that utilizes the thermal energy of water is not new. T&T has reported for example Helen’s From the heat pump installed in connection with the Vuosaari power plant, which uses seawater and the power plant’s own cooling water cycle as its heat sources.
The system developed by Scottish researchers is being tested, among other things, in connection with a housing project and in a greenhouse. The system is small and easily portable.
The heat pump is designed to replace gas and oil heating, which are tried to be abandoned in order to achieve emission reduction goals.