Posted on 04/05/2013 10:30:55 AM PDT by Freeport
Heat pump type water heaters fail miserably in real life use; it might be a function of the number of duty cycles but I think they’re just too complex for something that needs to be 100% reliable ,It shouldn’t matter if it’s a heat pump pulling heat from air like your A/C or it’s a water to water system as this guy wants to build.
I’ve had 2 tankless electric heaters fail over a 5 year period BIG 3*60 AMP ones ,, with 3 chambers theres a lot of possible failure points and don’t try to reason with the wife when she has to take a cold shower...
What works in any climate is/are GAS tankless water heaters ... my Aunts home in Brooklyn still has their original tankless water heater from 1926 ,, just updated to eliminate the pilot light... amazingly simple , just a copper coil about 6” in diameter and 2 feet in length(THICK COPPER) inside a tube that narrows to become the chimney/exhaust.
The 1970’s/1980’s solution was to capture waste heat from the A/C pressure/liquid side with a sealed heat exchanger box... WORKED GREAT and improved A/C efficiency also... don’t know why it has fallen out of favor.
Best solution now in warm climates is passive solar heat with electric backup.
I would think that the parts of the world which have 70 degree ground water would also have plenty of sunlight and ambient air temps.
A solar hot water heater, or even just heating the pipes to ambient air temp would probably be a far better primary solution in these places.
Perhaps the groundwater heat pump could be used in the “cold” season in those areas to some effect...
Question! What kind of heat pumps are being used, air to air, or ground to air? Also do you have any data/idea on relative temperatures? We have an air to air heat pump for a home at 3600 ft. in northern CA and it holds house ,1500 sq. ft, temp at 69-70F down to about 32-35 degrees.
Don’t ask ME! I live in Alaska! But when I lived in St. George, all the homes had heat pumps on the roofs. Very common. Look them up online and you should be able to find out everything you are interested in.
The way the one I referred to was described was that there was a central pipe (copper) 3” or 4” in diameter, through which the waste water flowed - spliced in to the existing drain line from the bathtub.
It, then, had another copper pipe - normal supply pipe, 1/2” or so, wound tightly on a mandrel so it was slightly deformed to increase the surface-area contact. The cold water flowed through that one on its way to the heater, and warmed significantly.
Worked well for showers, when the supply came in as the same time as the outflow; not so good for baths.
There ya go.
Effectively 7kw in free power while the shower is running.
“No big deal.”
energy loss in both conversions, the guy is BS!
Improving hot water heating efficiency ... with cold water
Why is he heating hot water?
I’m still waiting on that E-cat water heater.
First thing I thought of. I was scrolling down looking to see if anyone brought it up. They might get some gains by capturing some of that ambient heat in the pipe water, but I highly doubt their efficacy numbers. A good amount of that ambient heat will be lost by warming the now too cold tap water. The dish washing machine is about the only thing that uses the fully heated hot water.
I’m in Florida. I heat my house with a heat pump, as do 90% of Floridians. However, the efficiency of a heat pump is quite poor once the outside temps dip below about 25F.
I do like using the outside coils of the AC to heat water. But I think you would get a surplus of hot water.
To preheat water, solar energy is the cheapest.
Best for non-freezing climbs, the pipes can be laid right below the roof. You’ll get 150F water.
just not around anyone’s necks, right. No mandela necklaces?
Damn near any proposal containing the word "green" can get funding these days.
Ummm... did you say your name was Ben Bernanke>
Works the same way as a home heat pump, air conditioner or even the refrigerator. Compress a working fluid, radiate the created heat then take a pressure drop. It creates a cold point below ambient.
>> “Best solution now in warm climates is passive solar heat with electric backup.” <<
.
Warm climates, with soft water only!
Put it in a cold climate with hard water and the freeze valves will fail within a year. Warm climate with hard water, about two years.
For relatively low delta T, pumping heat requires relatively little energy. Going pumping from 70 degrees to 110 degrees wouldn’t require a huge amount of energy.
I haven’t done the math but going from 70 to 140 degrees might take twice as much energy. The lower the temperature delta, the closer you come to zero energy cost to pump heat. Now that I am rambling, the math is actually pretty cool as you approach 0 delta the amount of heat pumped per unit of energy expended approaches infinity. Ground source heat pumps are very efficient because they make delta T much smaller, both in the summer and the winter.
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