The Heat Pump is an environment-friendly alternative to traditional heating systems.

Traditionally, water heating both in industry as well as domestic heating has been provided by fossil fuels (coal, electri-city, oil, gas, LPG, HSD). Even wood is a common source of energy due to its low value and availability. These resources are not only finite but burning them is also a major contributor to carbon emission. With energy prices hitting new highs every passing day, one cannot underestimate the effect heating choices can have on energy consumption and carbon emissions. The provision of heating and hot water accounts for over 50% of energy consumption in domestic buildings and far outweighs other energy use in homes.

Likewise, domestic heating and hot water accounts for about 83% of delivered energy, 68% of carbon emissions and 50% of the energy costs. But there is an alternate heating solution that offers low running costs, is less dependent on fossil fuels and has greatly reduced CO2 emissions. This is the heat pump technology pioneered by Holistic Energy Equipment Pvt Ltd (HEEPL), a Pune-based firm with their new unit the 'AirTech Water Heater' (ATWH). Biju Sumughan, Independent Consultant and Director Marketing, HEEPL, explains the technology in this email chat with Industrial Products Finder. Excerpts:

What is heat pump technology?

Like most good technologies, the ATWH heat pump is simple at its heart. Using Nature's energy, the sun's rays heat up the air, water and ground. Heat pump technology simply extracts this free energy. Heat pumps make a significant contribution towards solving the problems associated with increasingly scarce and evermore expensive energy resources - supplying more energy than they consume by tapping into the freely available, inexhaustible solar energy stored in the earth, the ambient air and converting this for use in a heating system. In fact, up to 75% of the energy needed by the ATWH heating system is extracted from the environment, so the only energy required is electricity needed to drive the heat pump compressor. Put another way, for every 1 kW of electricity used to run the heat pump, up to 4 kW of useful heat is provided, giving the heat pump an efficiency of up to 400%. And this is a low carbon heating solution.

Whenever fossil fuels such as gas or oil are burnt, carbon dioxide is released. CO2 is the principle contributor to the greenhouse effect, which is leading to long term climate change. However, as heat pumps extract as much as 75% of their heating energy from the environment, building carbon emissions for heating can be reduced by as much as 50% compared with gas fuelled heating systems. Even at ambient temperatures as low as -6?C, there is enough heat in the atmosphere for the technology to work, i.e., the ATWH is able to absorb thermal energy at low temperature levels and increase this energy to high temperature levels and subsequently supply it for utilisation which is water heating. The ATWH heat pump can be classified as a renewable energy source because the heat in the ambient air is replenished by the sun. When describing the performance of ATWH heat pumps, the term coefficient of performance (COP) is used to describe the ratio of useful heat movement to work input. This relates to the amount of energy extracted from the sir for each unit of energy used to run the ATWH. The ATWH heat pump can provide up to 4 kW of energy for every kW used.

What is the ATWH heat pump process?

Air comes into contact with a liquid refrigerant in the evaporator. The refrigerant absorbs the ambient heat from the air and evaporates. The resulting gas passes to a compressor, which increases the pressure and therefore the temperature, of the gas. The hot compressed gas now passes to the condenser where it is passed over the cold water inlet pipe surface. This surface absorbs the heat from the gas and in turn heats up the water.

The liquid travels to an expansion valve where it resumes normal pressure then returns to the evaporator to be recycled around the system. The hot water is stored in the tank unit to be pumped for various processes or for its direct usage.

Is heat pump technology a new development?

No, it is a proven technology. Heat pumps have been used to extract heat from the air, water and ground for decades and are particular popular as a power source for domestic heating systems in Scandinavian countries.

How different is it from solar water heaters?

Traditionally, the solar water heaters have proven themselves to be an energy efficient renewable water heating alternative to gas and electric systems, and while solar systems are still an efficient way to heat water, the ATWH heat pumps save more equivalent amounts of energy and green house emissions to electric boosted solar systems.

The ATWH scores over the solar water heaters on the following points:

• Relatively low cost to purchase and install
• Easy 'same day' replacement
• Frost protected
• Requires very less space and completely reduces structural load
• Works day and night as it does not require sunlight, and
• Saves on tank costs and capacities.

What is the ATWH advantage?

Sanitary hot water up to 60?C; efficient performance even in cold, hilly and moist areas; easy to control and unique flexible installation and integration onto existing systems; and low installation, running and maintenance costs; and ownership costs are the main advantages. The considerable contribution from renewable energy sources also helps to provide running cost savings over fossil fuelled heating systems and arguably more importantly, future proofs the system against future energy price increases. But fuel costs are only part of the story. Unlike gas and oil based systems, heat pumps require no costly regular maintenance or annual safety inspections. And because a heat pump has a reasonable life expectancy of 10-15 years, typically twice that of a boiler, the investment costs can be recovered over a short period meaning the ownership costs over the working life of the system are demonstrably lower.

Renewable energy has a key role to play in reducing CO2 emissions and in particular installation of the ATWH heat pump is a n effective way of reducing the industry's or the building carbon foot prints; thereby helping the environment.

How does the ATWH heat pump serve industrial heat requirement?

Heating of process water: warm or hot water is required in various production processes, e.g., starch production. Here, water with temperatures of about 80?C is used for releasing starch in order to steam strip it afterwards into different levels. Washing processes: various Industrial washing processes require hot water, therefore fresh water is normally heated up to 40?C in counter current to warm water and later heated from this 40?C until the required washing water temperature is achieved. When washing textiles, temperatures between 60?C and 90?C can occur depending on the washing programme. In cosmetics production, hot water with 85?C is commonly used for the cleansing of production facilities. Additionally in the dairy industry, hot water is used for can washing and so on.

Up to what capacities are ATWH heat pump available?

The smallest unit as on date is 1000 ltrs/day whereas on the higher end the ATWH can go up to a capacity of 20,000 ltrs/day unit.

Which segments does the ATWH heat pump find applications?

In various processes of the industry, say, pharmaceuticals, food and dairy, textiles, automobiles, cosmetics, etc. The ATWH is ideal also for water heating needs of existing homes and ideal for new properties and swimming pool heating. Many local authorities are now insisting on the provision of renewable energy as a condition of planning permission for new building projects.

(Holistic Energy Equipment Pvt Ltd, Pune Tel: 020-26995588. Email: info@heepl.com Biju Sumughan, Independent Consultant and Director Marketing, HEEPL. Mobile: 096899-19078. Email: biju.sumughan@gmail.com)