Heat Pumps

Croatia’s Viktor Lenac Shipyard aims to replace electric boilers and a water-to-water heat pump with a seawater heat pump, in order to provide heat and cooling for buildings. The pilot project is backed by EU funding and has launched a tender to support the construction of the seawater heat pump.

The Dutch heat pump market grew by 57% in 2022, with 70,000 heat pumps installed in new buildings and 40,000 in existing homes. The Dutch Heat Pump Association (DHPA) now wants to focus on investing in solar-thermal heat pumps and bringing the technology to low-income households.

The Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity (A2EP) has released a free, online estimation tool to aid Australian businesses in sizing heat pumps to replace gas boilers. The tool estimates the capex, opex, net savings, and payback time based on inputs about heating, cooling, location, and temperature requirements.

LG has developed an air source heat pump with the capacity to heat 200 liters to 270 liters of domestic water. It uses R134a as a refrigerant and the pump has a coefficient of performance (COP) of up to 3.85.

The Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) plans to build a heat pump that generates steam at 184 C at 11 bars without using gas. The tech, which uses natural refrigerants, will be used in the pharmaceutical industry.

South Africa scientists have developed an integrated, solar-powered heat pump and refrigerator for use by food vendors in sub-Saharan Africa. The dual system is powered by two 90 W solar modules and repurposes waste heat.

A set of amendments to Germany’s law that offer a rebate program for sustainable heating has come into effect on January 1st. The new rules grant rebates of up to 40% to help homeowners to buy and install heat pumps.

Equium has developed a new thermo-acoustic heat pump core that reportedly produces 3 kW to 4 kW of heat for every kilowatt of power it consumes. It says the refrigerant-free device could generate domestic hot water at temperatures of up to 80 C.

Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy and a group of heat pump manufacturers have started a project to replace gas and oil heating systems in multi-family homes with propane heat pumps featuring low-charge propane (R290) as the refrigerant.

The Flemish government will halve the solar panels premium from a maximum of €1,500 ($1,594) in 2022 to €750 from Jan. 1, 2023. It will also end the home battery premium earlier than initially announced, from April 2023. The premium for heat pump boilers, on the other hand, will be retroactively doubled.