Heat Pumps

Germany’s Vaillant has developed an air-source heat pump that uses propane (R290) as the refrigerant. It can produce between 3.4 kW and 8 kW of heat, and domestic hot water to a temperature of up to 75 C. It says the heat pump maximizes savings when paired with rooftop solar.

Swedish manufacturer Qvantum has developed a 6 kW heat pump for apartments connected to district heating systems. It uses propane (R290) as the refrigerant.

Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a free, web-based application that calculates the savings and energy efficiency of residential ground-source heat pumps compared to gas heating.

The European Heat Pump Association has compiled an up-to-date overview of subsidies for residential heat pumps in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Switzerland.

Samsung and the city of Oxford in the UK have announced the trial of a neighborhood heat pump scheme in Rose Hill, Oxford. The project aims to connect communities to local installers, helping to remove key barriers to heat pump uptake, including cost. Up to 150 Samsung air-source heat pumps will be installed at a reduced price of GBP 2,600 ($3,185) each.

Germany’s Bosch has developed an air-source heat pump that uses propane (R290) as the refrigerant. It can produce between 3.9 kW and 6.7 kW of heat, and domestic hot water to a temperature of up to 75 C. It says the heat pump can be paired with rooftop solar to maximize self-consumption.

Energy Systems Catapult has released interim data from air-source heat pump field monitoring in the United Kingdom between November 2020 and August 2022. Figures show that heat pumps are three times more efficient than gas boilers and that their median coefficient of performance (COP) on cold days is 2.44, compared to 2.80 year round.

Mitsubishi Electric has developed an air-source heat pump that uses propane (R290) as the refrigerant. It can produce between 5 kW and 8.5 kW of heat and domestic hot water to a temperature of up to 75 C.

The record-breaking size and bustling halls of Enex Expo showed that the Polish PV market has no intention of slowing down. While last year’s switch from net metering to net billing is expected to continue to reverberate through the residential solar market, the commercial and industrial (C&I) and utility-scale PV market segments stand ready to pick up the slack.

Vaillant has revealed that it has opened a new heat pump factory in Slovakia. The facility will exclusively make heat pumps from May, with an expected annual output of 300,000 units.