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Something for our Kiwi friends down under

Started by submarinesailor, July 07, 2005, 08:33:43 AM

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submarinesailor

Hey Ernie,

Found this article in today's powermarketers.com and thought you mite find it interesting.

Bruce/subsailor

Harnessing heat from the air

Power supply continues to grab the headlines, fuelled by hints from at least one energy company that secure, reliable power supplies may be under threat.  That has encouraged New Zealand industry to continue to explore energy options and the potential for power savings. 

Hot-water heating is probably the single biggest energy cost for New Zealand businesses -- and the one where there is the largest potential for savings.   Through the development of ground-breaking heat-pump technology, Rheem New Zealand offers a water heater that, it asserts, will use the energy in the air to heat water more efficiently than any other water heater. 

How does a drop of 65 per cent in your hot water bill sound?
According to its manufacturer, that's what can be achieved by the Rheem HP 3.25 heat pump, called HP 3.25 because it is 325 per cent efficient.   Rheem's sales and marketing manager, Peter Faase, says such efficiency can lead to a drop in electricity bills by two-thirds.   "The air to heat water technology uses 70 per cent less energy than a conventional electric or gas water heater. Businesses can reap the benefits of generating hot water from the high levels of latent energy found in the air," he says.   The 325% efficiency of the Rheem heat pump compares to 100% efficiency for a standard electric water heater and about 80% for an equivalent gas heater.   

Using refrigeration technology in reverse is the secret to the heat pump's efficiency.   A refrigerator extracts energy from the air and expels waste heat from the back leaving the interior of the cabinet cold.   The heat pump also takes energy from the air but, instead of expelling the air as waste, the energy is used to heat the water.   

Marketed for at least 18 months, the heat pump is popular as a preheater in large plant rooms.  The heat pump harnesses energy from plant rooms, which, in turn, provides ready-heated water to other water-heating cylinders. 

DanG

Using that heat is cool. 8) ::)  It isn't a new concept, however.  A friend of mine had a system like that in his house back in the mid-seventies.  It worked pretty good, too.  I don't know why it hasn't become more popular.
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

crtreedude

We don't have a hot water tank, they are just about as rare as snow down here.  Being a little soft, I have a heating element on the showers (which I call suicide showers - it is a touch unnerving seeing two think electrical wires going to the shower head - and often a throw switch on the side) and that is it.

Everything is is done with lukewarm water. I doubt this would work well in other climates, but we don't use much energy at all.

Fred
So, how did I end up here anyway?

DanG

I used one of those infernal devices when I went to Haiti in 'eighty.  Got a nasty shock from it, too! :o

You could have all the hot water you want for free, and at no cost to nature, either.  Why not build a simple solar water heater?
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

crtreedude

Definitely thinking about it - and I suspect it would work better too. Sometimes the electric goes out just in the middle of a shower after you lather up - yesterday it caught my wife.

She was trying to get me to fix the shower until I noticed the power was out.

On demand systems don't work well with no power.

So, how did I end up here anyway?

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