Planning the Heat Pump project

After studying the technology of Heat Pumps, existing solutions in the region, local providers and companies, documents and other things related to the project, I have started with detailed planning of the project. I first tried to figure out and list all activities needed for the project, after that I tried to arrange them in to the correct order – what to do first and what to do next. I checked my list with several companies discussing this issue and that is how I supplemented my plan and also verify my project plan. After having all activities in right order I started to plan costs and deadlines of the project. To be as much as possible exact, I have spoken with several providers, drillers, manufactures to discover all costs and realistic deadlines. The result was almost 4 month long project plan. Of course, it is possible to finish after one month, but in that time it was not possible, because you have to wait for the equipment, for the drillers, for calculations… at that time only few installations existed and it was hard to get quality and available company for implementation.So what to do first… the first thing in my plan was activity “Calculation of energy losses and energy needs for the building”

Choosing renewable resource (source)

When deciding which renewable resource to use (air, ground water, water from lake or river, ground source – geothermal - heat of rocks) it is necessary to consider many aspects, the most important are:

• what resources are available in the neighborhood and what are temperatures (e.g. temperature of underground water)
• what resources you are allowed to use according to the local regulation (e.g. in some countries it is prohibited to use underground water in others you should get special permission from the government)
• what is your climate (winter air temperature)
• how much money are you prepared to spend for the project (e.g. air sourced heat pump installation is probably the cheapest, ground sourced heat pump (geothermal) installation with vertical collectors is probably the most expensive)
• are you planning to use your heat pump also for water heater
• are you planning to use your heat pump also for cooling
• how much isolation coat are you planning to put on to your house and what would be the energy loss of your house
• what kind of heating are you planning to implement (low temperature floor heating, high temperature)
• what is or should be coefficient of heat pump performance (I will explain this term latter)

When considering described issues you should definitely involve someone who is familiar or even better professional in those calculations. At the end you should know all calculations, energy loss, primary source temperature, type of heating (e.g. floor heating) and other parameters.
For my project I have engaged one local professional who was very familiar with this numbers and calculations. I have paid to him 100 € and it was worth paying. Finally I have decided to use ground sourced heat pump with vertical underground collectors (geothermal).

What is heat pump – explanation for beginners

You have probably noticed that warm air is rising behind your fridge when operating. Well your fridge is your every day heat pump cooling your food and at the same time heating your kitchen. This is the basic working principle for heat pumps – cooling down one medium (in case of fridge this is the food you have putted in) and at the same time warming up other medium (in case of fridge this is air in your kitchen). Similar to your fridge is also the operating principle of air conditioning device for cooling your home, deep freeze and other devices.
Why so much talking about heat pumps to be on of the cheapest ways to heat you home … it is because of simple calculation: for example you input in your heat pump about 80% of renewable resource, which is for free (e.g. water, air, earth), and 20% of electrical power = and you get 100% of energy for heating your home. That means that you pay only 20% of electricity to get 100% of heating power mostly because of renewable resource (see simple picture in this post). That is something to think about.

Maybe you are thinking now… is it possible to design cheap home made heat pump using old fridge or more of them… well, it is possible, but I will describe this maybe some other time.
Next … Choosing renewable resource for my Heat pump project.

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How I started with Heat Pump Project

I was always amused with new technology that could help our earth to be cleaner and that could be used for more environment friendly living… so that is how it started. When internet era came I used my computer to search for solutions and I then I have found the right one at the right moment. I started to build my own house and I needed also heating. At this time (2000 – 2002) in my country (Slovenia) only some pilot projects concerning reusable energy were present and no advanced technology was available. I have searched the web and solutions in northern EU countries and worldwide. Then I found technology for using renewable energy with heat pumps for heating. I started to search the whole web for some solutions, pilot project, documentation, articles and so on. I learned a lot about this technology about renewable resources and that is how my project started.

See my next post: Heat Pump Project planning