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Understanding Heat Pumps: The sustainable choice for heating and cooling

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Understanding Heat Pumps: The sustainable choice for heating and cooling

Posted | Updated by Insights team:

Publication | Update:

Apr 2024
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Renewable changes to heat systems and heat pumps are crucial as our world faces an existential threat in the form of a climate emergency. Renewable methods of heating can help reduce greenhouse gases and, therefore the impact of global warming

The climate emergency makes itself felt across the globe with an alarming increase in the incidence of forest fires, devastating floods, relentless downpours, and other so-called ‘natural’ disasters.

The root cause of many of these disasters is the build-up of greenhouse gases (GHGs) over the last 50 years or so. GHGs – one of the most powerful of which is carbon dioxide – are known to trap the Sun’s heat near the Earth’s surface, causing the greenhouse effect, which, in turn, results in global warming.

Renewable methods of heating can help reduce GHGs (and therefore the impact of global warming), and that is why heat pumps – which run on electric power, increasingly fuelled by renewables – have emerged as a key tool in the global transition toward clean and reliable space and process heating.

How does a heat pump work?

A typical heat pump captures heat from outside and moves it into a building. It effectively operates like a fridge in reverse, using a refrigerant to absorb the heat that can be found naturally in the ground or air.

This refrigerant is compressed to increase its temperature, and the resulting heat can be used to raise the temperature of cold water. So, heat pumps move heat around rather than generating it. As their name suggests, reversible heat pumps do the same thing in reverse, thus generating cooling rather than heating.

Heat pumps for every application

Depending on the type of heat pump specified these versatile units can be employed for comfort air conditioning; cold store operation, heating air for drying (clothes, agricultural products, and so on); precooling fresh fruits, vegetables, or flowers; direct process fluid cooling in the chemical, pharmaceutical and food processing industry; heating water, and directly heating process fluids such as cleaning solutions in industrial washing machines.

Applications for heat pumps include offices, schools, restaurants, hotels, sports halls and health clubs, and healthcare facilities such as hospitals. Industrial applications include dairy, textile, pharmaceutical, food processing, cold stores and heat networks.

The benefits of heat pumps

Heat pumps offer an array of advantages. For example, they:

  • Offer impressive energy efficiency.
  • Can deliver an all-in-one heating and cooling system for both summer and winter comfort.
  • Provide lower running costs than the alternatives.
  • Reduce carbon emissions compared with fossil fuels.
  • Are safer because there is no combustion involved in their use.
  • Involve less maintenance (and therefore lower service costs) than a combustionbased heating system.
  • Save space since there are no fuel storage requirements.
  • Have a long lifespan.

Apart from being more environmentally friendly than fossil fuel-driven alternatives, heat pumps require less maintenance than other heating systems, they enhance safety because they don’t rely on combustion to generate heat so there are fewer risks associated with their use, they are more flexible because many can offer cooling as well as heating, and they have a long operational lifespan – 20 years or more is not uncommon.

The types of heat pump

There are essentially three types of heat pumps – air source heat pumps (also called air to water heat pumps), water source heat pumps (also called water to water heat pumps), ground source heat pumps.

Air source heat pumps

An air source heat pump (ASHP) can range from producing 5kW of heat to almost infinite size, subject to the space available and electrical supply. It uses a vapour compression cycle to absorb heat from the atmosphere and produce hot water at around 45°C. The next generation of these units will provide up to 90°C hot water production.

There are many refrigerant options available, including natural refrigerants such as carbon dioxide (CO2) which does not require F-Gas approval.

It is possible to have reversible (in other words, two-pipe operation) heat pumps, or polyvalent (four or six-pipe operation) heat pumps. More on these later.

An ASHP is highly effective as the first stage of a cascade system for direct hot water production and provides on-demand production. There are several important considerations when it comes to using an ASHP. For example:

  • The defrost mode and space constraints, as well as air and compressor noise. ASHPs are noisier than boilers, the capital expenditure is higher, and maintenance requirements may also be greater.
  • However, on the plus side, average efficiency levels across the year are higher with an ASHP, operating expenses are lower (particularly now the price of gas is increasing), and the technology is proven as a good alternative to gas boilers.

The simplest ASHP is a switchable two-pipe type, where the unit will provide chilled water for cooling in summer and hot water for heating in winter. This suits applications with a seasonal change-over or large ‘dead-band’ between cooling and heating temperatures.

The unit just needs a signal from the building management system (BMS) to tell it to operate in cooling or heating mode. The latest generation of ASHPs can provide up to 80°C hot water production at -4°C ambient.

Polyvalent Air Source Heat Pump

A polyvalent or four-pipe unit has three modes of operation to meet all the thermal requirements of the building – cooling only, heating only, and simultaneous production.

The unit is permanently connected to chilled water and hot water distribution pipework and, using built-in temperature sensors, will react to changes in the heating and cooling loads to meet the building demand. The BMS needs only to provide a run signal to the unit, the load control is handled by the on-board printed circuit board (PCB).

This type of unit provides the greatest flexibility in thermal production and can be setup to work a supplementary two-pipe unit to increase peak heating or cooling capacity, under the control of MTM supervisor unit.

A six-pipe polyvalent unit has the same chilled and hot water production as the four-pipe unit, but is fitted with an additional heat exchanger called a ‘desuperheater’ which uses the high temperature discharge gas from the compressor to provide between 10 and 15% of the cooling capacity as hot water in the region of 60 to 70°C.

This is not on-demand production of this higher water temperature, but merely a by-product of heating or cooling output.

Klima-Therm’s Air Source Heat Pumps:

Our range of ASHPs typically range from 5 to 700kW. High temperature options of up to 80°C are available and there are options for hydronic modules, low noise, and a host of accessories as well as different compressor technologies.

A variety of refrigerants are available from traditional HFCs to more modern low and ultra-low GWP alternatives.

Equipped with fixed speed or inverter-driven compressors, these reliable chillers with optional hydronic systems are available for quick despatch to suit your project deadline.

Hybrid heating & cooling in action

Kingston College

The first UK installation of Rhoss EXP hybrid cooling and heating technology from KlimaTherm was installed at the new Creative Industries Centre at Kingston College, London.

The innovative heat pump-based chiller was installed by Lowe & Oliver and specified by consultant Hamson JPA for its excellent energy efficiency and ability to provide simultaneous chilled water and hot water, linked to whole-building energy harvesting.

Northbrook College

Klima-Therm also supplied a hybrid heat pump chiller to Northbrook College’s West Durrington Campus, providing high efficiency, low carbon cooling and heating for a state-of-the-art refurbishment project.

The Rhoss EXP TXAETY 4200 heat pump chiller installed by Maybourne & Russell, was chosen for its ability to deliver low energy simultaneous chilled and hot water for use in air conditioning, heating, and domestic hot water supplies. The project achieved a Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM) rating of Excellent.

To discover more heat pump options, download and read the full ebook ‘Understanding heat pumps: The sustainable choice for future-proof, cost-effective heating and cooling’ here. 

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Forecast methodology

The future outlook “forecast” is based on a set of statistical methods such as regression analysis, industry specific drivers as well as analyst evaluations, as well as analysis of the trends that influence economic outcomes and business decision making.
The Global Economic Model is covering the political environment, the macroeconomic environment, market opportunities, policy towards free enterprise and competition, policy towards foreign investment, foreign trade and exchange controls, taxes, financing, the labour market and infrastructure. We aim update our market forecast to include the latest market developments and trends.

Forecasts, Data modelling and indicator normalisation

Review of independent forecasts for the main macroeconomic variables by the following organizations provide a holistic overview of the range of alternative opinions:

  • Cambridge Econometrics (CE)

  • The Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR)

  • Experian Economics (EE)

  • Oxford Economics (OE)

As a result, the reported forecasts derive from different forecasters and may not represent the view of any one forecaster over the whole of the forecast period. These projections provide an indication of what is, in our view most likely to happen, not what it will definitely happen.

Short- and medium-term forecasts are based on a “demand-side” forecasting framework, under the assumption that supply adjusts to meet demand either directly through changes in output or through the depletion of inventories.
Long-term projections rely on a supply-side framework, in which output is determined by the availability of labour and capital equipment and the growth in productivity.
Long-term growth prospects, are impacted by factors including the workforce capabilities, the openness of the economy to trade, the legal framework, fiscal policy, the degree of government regulation.

Direct contribution to GDP
The method for calculating the direct contribution of an industry to GDP, is to measure its ‘gross value added’ (GVA); that is, to calculate the difference between the industry’s total pre­tax revenue and its total bought­in costs (costs excluding wages and salaries).

Forecasts of GDP growth: GDP = CN+IN+GS+NEX

GDP growth estimates take into account:

  • Consumption, expressed as a function of income, wealth, prices and interest rates;

  • Investment as a function of the return on capital and changes in capacity utilization; Government spending as a function of intervention initiatives and state of the economy;

  • Net exports as a function of global economic conditions.

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Market Quantification
All relevant markets are quantified utilizing revenue figures for the forecast period. The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) within each segment is used to measure growth and to extrapolate data when figures are not publicly available.

Revenues

Our market segments reflect major categories and subcategories of the global market, followed by an analysis of statistical data covering national spending and international trade relations and patterns. Market values reflect revenues paid by the final customer / end user to vendors and service providers either directly or through distribution channels, excluding VAT. Local currencies are converted to USD using the yearly average exchange rates of local currencies to the USD for the respective year as provided by the IMF World Economic Outlook Database.

Industry Life Cycle Market Phase

Market phase is determined using factors in the Industry Life Cycle model. The adapted market phase definitions are as follows:

  • Nascent: New market need not yet determined; growth begins increasing toward end of cycle

  • Growth: Growth trajectory picks up; high growth rates

  • Mature: Typically fewer firms than growth phase, as dominant solutions continue to capture the majority of market share and market consolidation occurs, displaying lower growth rates that are typically on par with the general economy

  • Decline: Further market consolidation, rapidly declining growth rates

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The Global Economic Model
The Global Economic Model brings together macroeconomic and sectoral forecasts for quantifying the key relationships.

The model is a hybrid statistical model that uses macroeconomic variables and inter-industry linkages to forecast sectoral output. The model is used to forecast not just output, but prices, wages, employment and investment. The principal variables driving the industry model are the components of final demand, which directly or indirectly determine the demand facing each industry. However, other macroeconomic assumptions — in particular exchange rates, as well as world commodity prices — also enter into the equation, as well as other industry specific factors that have been or are expected to impact.

  • Vector Auto Regression (VAR) statistical models capturing the linear interdependencies among multiple time series, are best used for short-term forecasting, whereby shocks to demand will generate economic cycles that can be influenced by fiscal and monetary policy.

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Forecasts of GDP growth per capita based on these factors can then be combined with demographic projections to give forecasts for overall GDP growth.
Wherever possible, publicly available data from official sources are used for the latest available year. Qualitative indicators are normalised (on the basis of: Normalised x = (x - Min(x)) / (Max(x) - Min(x)) where Min(x) and Max(x) are, the lowest and highest values for any given indicator respectively) and then aggregated across categories to enable an overall comparison. The normalised value is then transformed into a positive number on a scale of 0 to 100. The weighting assigned to each indicator can be changed to reflect different assumptions about their relative importance.

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The principal explanatory variable in each industry’s output equation is the Total Demand variable, encompassing exogenous macroeconomic assumptions, consumer spending and investment, and intermediate demand for goods and services by sectors of the economy for use as inputs in the production of their own goods and services.

Elasticities
Elasticity measures the response of one economic variable to a change in another economic variable, whether the good or service is demanded as an input into a final product or whether it is the final product, and provides insight into the proportional impact of different economic actions and policy decisions.
Demand elasticities measure the change in the quantity demanded of a particular good or service as a result of changes to other economic variables, such as its own price, the price of competing or complementary goods and services, income levels, taxes.
Demand elasticities can be influenced by several factors. Each of these factors, along with the specific characteristics of the product, will interact to determine its overall responsiveness of demand to changes in prices and incomes.
The individual characteristics of a good or service will have an impact, but there are also a number of general factors that will typically affect the sensitivity of demand, such as the availability of substitutes, whereby the elasticity is typically higher the greater the number of available substitutes, as consumers can easily switch between different products.
The degree of necessity. Luxury products and habit forming ones, typically have a higher elasticity.
Proportion of the budget consumed by the item. Products that consume a large portion of the consumer’s budget tend to have greater elasticity.
Elasticities tend to be greater over the long run because consumers have more time to adjust their behaviour.
Finally, if the product or service is an input into a final product then the price elasticity will depend on the price elasticity of the final product, its cost share in the production costs, and the availability of substitutes for that good or service.

Prices
Prices are also forecast using an input-output framework. Input costs have two components; labour costs are driven by wages, while intermediate costs are computed as an input-output weighted aggregate of input sectors’ prices. Employment is a function of output and real sectoral wages, that are forecast as a function of whole economy growth in wages. Investment is forecast as a function of output and aggregate level business investment.

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