The Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity (A2EP), an independent coalition of business and research leaders based at the University of Technology Sydney, has developed a free, online estimation tool for heat pumps for commercial and industrial applications.
The tool is designed to help business managers and engineers to model the impact of different heating temperatures.
“The goal is to find out in a few minutes whether heat pumps warrant a more detailed investigation for your requirements and whether you should seek out more information,” A2EP says on its website.
Users can input current electricity costs, process hours for use per year, average required heat, temperature of the heat sink, and water temperature. They can choose between heat pump sources, location, and using cooling in addition to heating.
The estimator returns the size of the required heat pump, coefficient of performance (COP), capex, opex, net savings, and payback time, with costs and savings presented in Australian dollars. It allows comparing the values for two natural refrigerants, ammonia (R717) and CO2 (R744).
“There is a lack of understanding across industry which we at A2EP are trying to overcome with resources and tools like the Heat Pump Estimator,” said Jarrod Leak, CEO of A2EP. “A lot of manufacturing and operations managers think heat pumps don’t compete on cost, but that’s based on the incorrect assumption that you need to replace a boiler with a heat pump of the same capacity, which is not the case.”
The heat pump estimator was developed by A2EP, engineering consultancy pitt&sherry, and energy equipment provider SmartConsult. It had support from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), Australian Meat Processor Corp., and industrial refrigeration equipment supplier Mayekawa Australia. A more advanced version of the tool which supports more advanced sizing, including for thermal storage systems, is available exclusively to A2EP members.
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