Swedish utility Vattenfall and Dutch heating and hot water systems provider Feenstra have launched in the Netherlands a high-temperature heat pump solution for existing single-family homes that is claimed to be an easy replacement for traditional gas central heating boilers.
“The similarities between Dutch and British gas central heating mean these high-temperature heat pumps could be suitable for UK housing in suburban and rural areas,” the two companies said in a joint statement. “They could enable households to swap out their existing gas boilers without needing to go to the additional expense and disruption of changing the rest of their heating system or installing additional insulation at the same time.”
The heat pump is claimed to be able to provide a water temperature of between 60 and 80 degrees Celsius, which means its use doesn't require the improvement of a house's insulation, the setting up of underfloor heating or the adaptation of radiators, all of which is necessary when a conventional air heat pumps are utilized.
The system's buffer works as a heat battery that is used to provide heat to radiators and generate hot tap water.
“The high-temperature heat pump solution is innovative, simple to install and could be the solution to help decarbonise homes in the UK that are heated using traditional gas boilers,” said Mark Anderson, commercial and development director at Vattenfall Heat UK, noting that the system can be deployed in just two days.
Further technical details on the heat pump were not disclosed.
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You can’t cheat thermodynamics. The higher the temperature, the lower the COP. There comes a threshold where hest pumps don’t make sense anymore. And, for heaven’s sake, *always*, *always*, first take care of home insulation and then change the heat source. To put a heat pump in an uninsulated home would be like making an electric Hummer. Oh wait…
Interesting!..apparently it needs a 300kg water tank installed with a footprint of 1m x 1.5m 1.5 m high.
External opening doors in the UK are only 832mm wide max and internal doors less.
How is it proposed to get this into the house and navigate corners and internal doors for the installation?
Funny that a puff piece on a brand new heat pump doesn’t include the letters C,O or P anywhere. Technical details are not revealed it says. High temp heat pumps have always been available they just have such low CoPs as to make them no better than resistance heating.