heat

Zarkon Group Real Estate Builders & Developers > Blog > heat

Tag: heat

Heat pumps that leverage the energy of sound 
CategoriesSustainable News

Heat pumps that leverage the energy of sound 

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: The International Energy Agency (IEA) calls heat pumps “the central technology in the global transition to secure and sustainable heating.” Although they tend to come with higher upfront costs than other heating options, their low rate of emissions and general high rates of efficiency are driving sales to record highs. Solar, wind, and hydropower are well-known renewables used to power many devices, and now French technology company Equium is introducing a new source. Thermoacoustic power transforms the energy of sound waves into heat or cold. 

The company’s Acoustic Heat Pump compresses or expands high power sound waves in order to produce the desired temperature. The action requires very little power, and as the sound waves expand and contract, the movement produced is similar to that of a piston in a traditional engine, yet without the mechanical moving parts. It is possible to use the thermoacoustic pumps in most temperatures and climates, without the need for greenhouse gases. 

The devices themselves are made from 100 per cent recyclable materials and are designed for extremely low maintenance, with expected product life spans of up to 30 years. They are also easy for owners to install without requiring advanced technical skills. The elimination of greenhouse gas refrigerants combined with minimal maintenance needs contribute to the new pumps’ efficiency, which further reduces long-term investment costs. 

Making sources of renewable heat and electricity more affordable is a foundational element of many of the energy innovations Springwise is spotting, such as geothermal systems for individual homes, and tailored electrification plans.

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference

Mini data centres heat local swimming pools for free
CategoriesSustainable News

Mini data centres heat local swimming pools for free

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: It is now well-understood that data centres consume vast amounts of energy. This is because the banks of servers in the data centres require a lot of cooling, which, in turn, uses a lot of energy. But one data centre has found a use for all the heat that it generates, a use that could also help public facilities such as swimming pools save money on their energy costs.

Deep Green, which runs data centres, has developed small edge data centres that can be installed locally and divert some of their excess heat to warm leisure centres and public swimming pools. The system, dubbed a “digital boiler”, involves immersing central processing unit (CPU) servers in special cooling tubs, which use oil to remove heat from the servers. This oil is then passed through a heat exchanger, which removes the heat and uses it to warm buildings or swimming pools.

Photo source Deep Green

The company says the heat donation from one of its digital boilers will cut a public swimming pool’s gas requirements by around 70 per cent, saving leisure centres thousands of pounds every year while also drastically reducing carbon emissions. Deep Green pays for the electricity it uses and donates the heat for free. This is a huge benefit, as Britain’s public swimming pools are facing massive increases in heating bills, which is causing many to close or restrict their hours.

The company hopes to install boilers in 20 swimming pools in 2023.

The issue of data centre energy use is moving to the fore, and is encouraging a host of new innovations. Recent ideas for more sustainable data centres that Springwise has spotted include a new server design that is much more energy-efficient, and the powering of data centres with hydrogen.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference

Using solid blocks to store heat
CategoriesSustainable News

Using solid blocks to store heat

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Energy cannot efficiently be stored for very long – and it is expensive to store it far from where it is produced. This is why, as the world transitions to sources of energy that are generated intermittently (such as solar and wind), the need for better energy storage solutions has risen to the forefront. Australian startup MGA Thermal has developed what it hopes will be a revolutionary new method for efficient storage of renewably generated energy.

MGA’s technology uses a new type of thermal storage material, called Miscibility Gap Alloys (MGA). These are capable of safely storing a huge amount of energy as heat. The company manufactures MGA blocks that contain particles of tiny metal alloys, dispersed in a matrix material. As the blocks are heated (using renewable sources), energy is absorbed and the particles melt. At the same time, the matrix material remains solid and holds the molten particles in place. When the blocks cool, the energy is released.

The company has recently received funding from Shell to build a pilot project that will demonstrate steam generation from the blocks. The pilot plant, which will only be around 12 metres by 3 metres in size, has a planned storage capacity of five megawatt-hours. The project will gather data to validate the efficacy of using the blocks as mid-to-long-term thermal storage in a practical system.

Energy innovators have their sights firmly set on developing much more efficient storage systems. Springwise has recently spotted several of these systems, including an iron-air battery and a salt battery small enough to use in electric vehicles.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference

Colour-changing facade material could help to heat and cool buildings
CategoriesSustainable News

Colour-changing facade material could help to heat and cool buildings

By Zarkon Group,

Researchers from the University of Chicago have invented a cladding material that changes colour to help with heating or cooling and could be retrofitted to improve buildings’ energy efficiency.

The composite material consists of several different layers including copper foil, plastic and graphene, and based on the outside temperature can change its infrared colour – the colour it appears under thermal imaging.

At the same time, it also changes the amount of infrared heat it absorbs or emits from the building. On hot days, the material appears yellow under thermal imaging, indicating that it is emitting more heat, while on cold days it appears purple because it is retaining that heat.

Diagram of the colour-changing material showing, from top, a layer of PE film, a gold grid, graphene, a layer where copper is deposited or stripped away, an aqueous electrolyte layer and copper foil
Top: the material appears yellow under thermal imaging when in heating mode and purple when cooling. Above: a layer of copper is deposited on a film to trigger heating mode

When used on a facade – for example in the form of shingles – the material could potentially reduce the need for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) and lower a building’s overall energy consumption.

“We’ve essentially figured out a low-energy way to treat a building like a person; you add a layer when you’re cold and take off a layer when you’re hot,” said materials engineer Po-Chun Hsu from the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, who led the research.

“This kind of smart material lets us maintain the temperature in a building without huge amounts of energy.”

Cladding responds to temperature like a chameleon

The University of Chicago describes the material as “chameleon-like” because it can change its colour in response to the outside temperature.

At a chosen trigger temperature, the material uses a tiny amount of electricity to either deposit copper onto a thin film or strip it away.

This chemical reaction effectively transforms the material’s central layer – a water-based electrolyte solution – into solid copper. The low-emitting copper helps to retain heat and warm the interior of a building, while the high-emitting aqueous layer keeps a building cool.

The layer of water-based electrolytes also helps to make the material non-flammable, and the researchers describe the switching process from metal to liquid and back again as “stable, non-volatile, efficient and mechanically flexible”.

“Once you switch between states, you don’t need to apply any more energy to stay in either state,” said Hsu. “So for buildings where you don’t need to switch between these states very frequently, it’s really using a very negligible amount of electricity.”

Material could reduce energy consumption by eight per cent

As part of their study, published in the journal Nature Sustainability, the researchers also created models to test the energy savings that could be achieved by applying their material to buildings in 15 US cities, representing 15 climate zones.

In areas that experienced a high variation in weather, they found the material could save 8.4 per cent of a building’s annual HVAC energy consumption on average. At the same time, the material relied on just 0.2 per cent of the building’s total electricity for its operation.

As it stands, building construction and operations account for nearly 37 per cent of global carbon emissions, most of which is attributed to building operations including lighting, heating and cooling.

To slash these emissions, the material could be used to retrofit poorly insulated or historic buildings and improve their energy efficiency, as the researchers suggest it would be more convenient to install than insulation.

However, several of its components – including the monolayer graphene and gold microgrid used as transparent conductive layers – are currently still expensive and complicated to manufacture.

The researchers have so far created only six-centimetre-wide patches of the material but imagine assembling them like shingles to form larger sheets.

With the watery layer active, the material is a dark white colour, which turns a coppery brown when the copper layer is active.

But the material could also be tweaked to show different colours by adding a layer of pigments behind the transparent watery layer.

Another approach to keeping buildings cool is to paint them white. For this purpose, researchers at Purdue University recently developed the “whitest paint on record”, which reflects 98 per cent of sunlight.

Images courtesy of Hsu Group.

Reference

Water-filled windows use sunlight to heat and cool buildings
CategoriesSustainable News

Water-filled windows use sunlight to heat and cool buildings

By Zarkon Group,

British startup Water-Filled Glass has developed panes of glass filled with water that use sunlight to power a “crazy” energy-saving heating and cooling system.

Founded in 2020 by Loughborough University architecture lecturer Matyas Gutai and his colleagues Daniel Schinagl and Abolfazl Ganji Kheybari, Water-Filled Glass (WFG) aims to use patented technology to make heavily glazed buildings significantly more sustainable.

Its windows contain a thin layer of water between glass panes, which absorbs heat from sunlight or other radiation, such as heat leaving a room.

The warmed water is then pumped through sealed pipes at low pressure to colder areas of the building, through an underfloor system or into thermal storage.

Water House 2.0 in Taiwan
Water-Filled Glass estimates its system can reduce energy bills by around 25 per cent

By absorbing thermal energy in this way the water-filled glass also limits how much solar heat gain enters the building through windows, reducing the need for air-conditioning in hot climates.

“We know that putting water in the window sounds like an outright mad idea,” Gutai told Dezeen.

“But we believe this is important because when you think about the energy of buildings and cutting carbon emissions, there’s still great potential and opportunity to think about glazing. Glass is responsible for a great part of heating and cooling energy consumption, and it’s a ubiquitous material, it’s on almost every building.”

Experimental pavilion by Water-Filled Glass
Water House 2.0 in Taiwan is an experimental project testing the heating and cooling system

“And if you think about that potential, I think even crazy ideas are somewhat warranted,” he continued. “Even if the idea sounds a bit mad off the bat, I think it’s important to think of alternatives to what we have. So we have crazy ideas, but we’re not crazy.”

WFG estimates that, depending on climate and a building’s window-to-wall ratio, its technology can reduce energy bills by around 25 per cent compared with standard windows.

The startup’s first commercial projects, an industrial building in Hungary and a residential development in the US, are now under construction.

It has completed two prototype buildings using the technology, named Water House 1.0 and Water House 2.0 (pictured) – the former a small cabin in Hungary and the latter a pavilion at Feng Chia University in Taiwan.

Interior of Water House 2.0
The technology prevents solar heat from entering through windows, reducing the need for active cooling

Gutai said water-filled glass allows buildings to be heavily glazed without compromising sustainability.

“The whole idea comes from the recognition that moving energy is much, much cheaper than heating or cooling the space,” said Gutai, who previously worked for prominent Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and in Kengo Kuma’s research lab at the University of Tokyo.

“That really excited us about water-filled glass,” he added. “We wanted to actually give architects the opportunity to build even completely fully glazed buildings if they want to without any compromise on sustainability.”

Because the system uses off-the-shelf glass and parts, WFG claims it does not greatly increase the embodied-carbon impact of construction as well as being easy to manufacture.

The company also insists its system has no impact on the aesthetics of the building inside or out, since water absorbs most energy from the part of the light spectrum that is invisible to humans.

A monitoring device is fitted to clean the water automatically, with maintenance checks required once a year.

Diagram of water-filled glass
A thin layer of water sits between panes of glass and absorbs heat from sunlight

In colder climates, the water-filled glass system uses triple-pane windows, the outer cavity filled with argon insulation to prevent the water from freezing during winter.

Capable of heating water up to temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius, the technology can be connected to a conventional heat pump or boiler.

WFG has also developed a retrofit version of its product, where the system can be fitted behind existing glazing without having to destroy the windows already in place.

The images are courtesy of Water-Filled Glass.

Reference

Dezeen Agenda features water-filled windows that heat and cool buildings
CategoriesSustainable News

Dezeen Agenda features water-filled windows that heat and cool buildings

By Zarkon Group,
Water-filled glass house

The latest edition of our weekly Dezeen Agenda newsletter features windows filled with water that can help to heat and cool buildings. Subscribe to Dezeen Agenda now.

British startup Water-Filled Glass has developed panes of glass filled with water that use sunlight to power a “crazy” energy-saving heating and cooling system.

Water-Filled Glass (WFG) aims to use the patented technology, which it estimates can reduce energy bills by 25 per cent, to make heavily glazed buildings more sustainable.

Twelve architecture projects to look forward to in 2023
Twelve architecture projects to look forward to in 2023

Other stories in this week’s newsletter include a roundup of architecture projects to look forward to in 2023, Sony’s reveal of its first-ever electric car and an attack on Oscar Niemeyer’s government palaces in the Brasília riot.

Dezeen Agenda

Dezeen Agenda is a curated newsletter sent every Tuesday containing the most important news highlights from Dezeen. Read the latest edition of Dezeen Agenda or subscribe here.

You can also subscribe to Dezeen Debate, which is sent every Thursday and contains a curated selection of highlights from the week, as well as Dezeen Daily, our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours on Dezeen.

Reference

Cold Climate Heat Pumps Warm Homes on the Coldest Days
CategoriesSustainable News Zero Energy Homes

Cold Climate Heat Pumps Warm Homes on the Coldest Days

By Zarkon Group,

In the US, about 13% of total CO2 emissions come from heating residential and commercial buildings. Because so many buildings rely on natural gas and heating oil, significant opportunity for reducing heating emissions lies with electric heat pumps. Heat pumps have been popular in the South for decades, but there are a lot of questions about how well they work in colder climates.

“A huge portion of our global emissions come from heating buildings,” says Brian Stewart, co-founder of Electrify Now, a volunteer organization devoted to electrification. “Since our homes are a big part of that, it’s important for us to understand the options we have for zero-carbon heating.”

Recently, researchers from the University of California, Davis did the math on switching from a gas furnace to an electric heat pump. Even with the mix of fuels that currently powers the electrical grid, a heat pump will produce far fewer emissions than a gas furnace, no matter where in the US you live. As the grid gets cleaner, the difference between electric and gas heating emissions will only continue to grow.

“We know that electrification works from a decarbonization standpoint, and we know that these heat pumps work in many situations,” says Stewart. “But we still have so many people wondering: Will heat pumps work in cold temperatures?”

Heat pumps, not just for warm climates

“With a standard heat pump, you start to lose efficiency as temperatures dip below 40°F,” explained Shawn LeMons, Performance Construction Manager for Mitsubishi Electric Trane HVAC US. “So, the system needs more electric power to extract heat from colder air.”

That’s where cold climate heat pumps come in.

Also known as high-efficiency heat pumps, these high-tech systems are specially designed to operate at a higher heating capacity in lower temperatures. “Cold climate heat pumps may look similar to standard heat pumps, but their internal technology and computer programming are far more advanced,” LeMons added. “They’re specifically built to function at subzero temperatures, all while operating as efficiently as possible.”

Location, location, location

Cold climate heat pumps are purpose-built for heating comfort and ease of use in inclement weather. You can use them in any “heating-dominated” region where HVAC systems spend most of the time heating instead of cooling. This includes climates with frequent snow and ice, as well as coastal climates with cold rain and fog. As long as your system is operating properly, it should be able to handle prolonged subzero temperatures, even at elevations thousands of feet above sea level, explained LeMons.

Households in milder temperature zones may also prefer a cold climate heat pump when the weather outside starts to get snowy or icy. You may not necessarily need a cold climate heat pump year-round, but having one will give you added benefits and comfort during the cold winter months.

Buying a cold climate heat pump

“Generally, because of the special features and programming, cold climate heat pumps can cost around 20% to 30% more than standard heat pumps,” said Jonathan Moscatello, Business Development Manager for Daikin North America. That’s because you’re paying for the system’s ability to pump heat in colder temperatures, and that’s where cold climate heat pumps shine.

“Compared to traditional heat pumps, they produce more heat per dollar spent, making them a better value in the long run,” said Moscatello. And that’s before you consider the potential tax incentives you’ll get when you make the switch!

Take note: Some manufacturers put all their premium technology into their cold climate models, so you’re also paying for features unrelated to the cold climate performance, Moscatello pointed out. So don’t be afraid to shop around for the best value.

What should you look for when picking out a cold climate heat pump? It depends on whom you ask. Start with the EnergyStar and Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) published standards for cold climate heat pumps. Most utility and government rebate programs also use these specifications.

“Manufacturers also have their own standards for what qualifies a heat pump for cold climate operation,” added Moscatello. “Examples of this include Mitsubishi’s Hyper-Heat line and Daikin’s Aurora line.”

Ratings and features to look for

LeMons and Moscatello recommend the following guidelines when shopping for a cold climate heat pump:

  1. Rated performance at 47°F.
  2. Maximum performance at 5°F.
  3. Capacity ratio at 5°F. This is the ratio of #1 and #2 above; the closer this number is to 100%, the better it can handle very low temperatures.
  4. Coefficient of performance at 5°F You want this number to be below 2. The lower the number, the better the system’s heat efficiency.
  5. Published performance at very cold temperatures, such as -13°F, -15°F, or -22°F. Keep in mind that these numbers give an idea of how the heat pump will perform on the coldest days. Many systems continue to work well at even lower temperatures.

Some typical features to look for:

  • Inverter compressors and advanced motors for greater energy efficiency
  • Advanced programming for cold climate operations, such as hot discharge air temperatures and “just right” airflow
  • Intelligent defrost cycles and drain pan de-icing
  • Optional wind baffles for an outdoor unit

At the end of the day, you’re buying a heating appliance, and you want to make sure it’s purpose-built for cold winter comfort. So, definitely read reviews and ask around before you buy!

Infographic showing advantages of heat pumps optimized for cold climates

The US Department of Energy’s Residential Cold Climate Heat Pump Technology Challenge is working with manufacturers to develop next-generation electric heat pumps.

Busting heat pump myths

Myth #1: You need a backup system to handle the coldest winter temperatures.

“Dual fuel is a legitimate path, but it’s not really necessary with a cold climate heat pump,” explained Stewart. Sure, standard heat pumps may need an alternate heating source like a furnace or boiler to take over when temperatures drop below freezing. Cold climate heat pumps, on the other hand, are equipped to handle the most frigid winters.

Laura Martel, Research and Evaluation Manager for Efficiency Maine offered an example of cold climate heat pump performance. “Caribou is a town in northeast Maine that’s IECC zone 7, the coldest climate zone in the United States. Homes in Caribou need their heaters for 6,444 of the 8,760 hours in a year.”

According to data from Efficiency Maine, it’s cheaper and more efficient to heat a home in Caribou with a cold climate heat pump than with a dual fuel system, natural gas, propane, or oil. While natural gas or propane systems may become more efficient when outdoor temperatures drop below 0°F, that only accounts for around 500 total hours each year in Caribou. Therefore, natural gas is more efficient than heat pumps only 5% of the time. For propane, that number drops to 1%.

“When you look at annual operating costs for various systems, heat pumps save people between $1,000 and $3,000 or more per year. Even if you switch to natural gas or propane for the small fraction of time that they’re cheaper, you’d only save an additional $26 per year, max,” said Martel. So, even though cold climate heat pumps may cost around $2,500 more to install than boiler systems, the yearly cost savings can quickly add up to make up for that initial expense.

Myth #2: Turning down the heat at night saves energy.

“We’ve been told for decades that we should turn down our home heater systems when we’re sleeping to save energy. That works great for boilers and furnaces, but I wouldn’t recommend it with heat pumps,” says Martel.

While furnaces can quickly blast heat into your home, heat pumps take longer to raise the temperature. When you turn your heat down at night, you reduce the rate of heat output of your system, temporarily lowering your energy usage. But when you turn it back up in the morning, your heat pump has to work extra hard to get the temperature back up. It doesn’t help that it’s usually colder in the early morning.

“Turning the heat down or off at night just isn’t as efficient as picking a comfortable temperature, setting it, and leaving it alone,” she said.

Still have questions?

If you’re interested in learning more about heat pumps, check out Electrify Now’s electrification fact sheet. You can also use this savings calculator from Rewiring America to estimate the tax incentives you’d receive from installing a heat pump in your home. Note that this article springs from Electrify Now’s cold climate heat pumps webinar, so check out their YouTube channel for more eco-friendly tips and technologies.

By Catherine Poslusny

Reference

An engine turns waste heat into clean electricity
CategoriesSustainable News

An engine turns waste heat into clean electricity

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Various studies have estimated that around 20 to 50 per cent of industrial energy consumption is discharged as waste heat – and up to 30 per cent of this could be harnessed and utilised. Looking to make use of the heat emitted by traditional engines, Israel-based startup Luminescent has built a system that produces zero-emission electricity. 

A small, isothermal engine upcycles waste heat and is designed to fit alongside conventional large engines and generators in order to send electricity back to the grid. If needed, the Luminescent device stores between 8 and 20 hours of renewable energy.  

The new device uses a heat transfer liquid to gather and move the heat emitted from another engine into the upcycling system. The liquid is then mixed with either air or gas and put under pressure, which causes the material to expand – this expansion converts the liquid into kinetic energy that powers a generator. The generator can then run other devices and systems, store power, or send electricity back to the grid. 

Currently working at around 70 per cent efficiency, the system could become available commercially in the next two to three years. Luminescent plans to use the $7 million (around €6.5 million) it raised recently in a round of seed funding to bring the engine to market.  

From the excess heat of public transport systems heating homes to car parks heating the buildings above, Springwise has spotted many ways innovators are making use of previously wasted emissions and resources.

Written By Keely Khoury

Reference

Heat Pump Dryers: Low-Impact Laundry
CategoriesSustainable News Zero Energy Homes

Heat Pump Dryers: Low-Impact Laundry

By Zarkon Group,

If you’re interested in shaving off perhaps 10% of your household energy use (and your electric bill) with a single purchase, it’s time to look into heat pump dryers. “An electric dryer can use anywhere from 700 to 1000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. That’s about a tenth of the average American’s electricity usage,” said Joe Wachunas, electrification advocate for Electrify Now and Project Manager at New Buildings Institute. “You can cut that by 75% or more using heat pump dryers.”

With options on the market that use as little as 200 kWh of energy in a year, it’s not hard to see why their market share is increasing. “Heat pump technology is critical here in America, especially,” Wachunas says. “And heat pump dryers are an exciting, relatively new technology.”

Traditional vented dryers

Vented dryers can be either gas or electric, and they require venting to the outside of the home through ducts. A heating element heats the air in the drum, evaporating the moisture from clothes. Then as the dryer runs, the hot, moist air is vented outside and replaced with air pulled in from your laundry room, basement, or wherever it’s located. This influx of fresh air must be heated to continue drying the clothes.

Ga-Young Park,  Residential Appliances Manager at ENERGY STAR, pointed out another inefficiency. “Because vented dryers pull in cooled or heated air from your home and vent it outdoors, your air conditioner or heater has to work even harder to maintain the indoor temperature.” Also, vented dryer drums get very hot during operation, which—aside from the fire risk—can overdry clothes and potentially damage fabrics.

Heat pump dryers

Electric-powered heat pump dryers (aka ventless or condensation dryers) dry clothes without using a heating element or vent. Instead, heat pump technology pulls air into a condenser, heats it, and sends it into the drum, where it absorbs moisture from the wet clothes. Then, the air cycles to an evaporator, where it’s cooled. As the air gets colder, it loses moisture, which is either drained or collected in a removable tray.

That same air is then pulled from the evaporator into the condenser to be reheated while it’s still warm. In other words, heat pump dryers recycle warm air instead of venting it to the outdoors. Not having to heat fresh, cold air leads to big energy savings. Park added, “Heat pump models dry laundry at lower temperatures, which is much gentler on clothes. And unlike vented dryers, there’s basically no fire risk.”

Hybrid heat pump dryers

Hybrid heat pump dryers combine the heat pump cycle with the heating element of a vented dryer. This pairing helps the dryer drum get hotter, so clothes dry faster. Hybrid heat pump dryers are much more efficient than vented dryers, but because of the heating element, they’re less efficient than pure heat pump dryers.

Bosch heat pump dryer in butler's pantry setting; white tile and gray cabinets

Bosch WTG86403UC 300 Series 24 Inch Smart Electric Dryer, ventless. Images courtesy Amazon.

Size, price, and dry time

“People often think heat pump dryers take way longer to dry clothes because they use lower temperatures,” said Park. In reality, heat pump models can have dry times comparable to many vented dryers on the market today. All models with the ENERGY STAR label meet an 80 minute maximum dry time for a “typical” cycle, and some newer models demonstrate dry times as low as 50 to 35 minutes.

Historically, heat pump dryers have been compact in size, smaller than typical US household dyers. Things are changing, though. Park reported only ten options for standard-size dryers with heat pump technology, but expects that more standard-size heat pump dryers will continue to come on the market, particularly as hybrid models become more available.

Heat pump dryers are definitely more expensive than traditional vented dryers, but more and more, utility-sponsored rebates are available to offset the cost differential. Owners may also save on installation. Heat pump dryers do not require venting ductwork, which makes them simpler and less expensive to install. Homeowners can install the dryers nearly anywhere, provided the condensed water is allowed to collect or drain along with the washer.

Of course, you’ll also see major savings on your monthly energy bill.

Finally, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will provide additional rebates and tax credits for homeowners looking to make energy-efficient home upgrades. (This savings calculator can help you estimate how much money you can save on a heat pump dryer through the IRA.)

Note: European households use an average of 3,700 kWh of electricity each year, just a third of what Americans use. Not coincidentally, while most of the world saves big money and energy by hanging clothes outside to dry, the practice is restricted or completely banned by many communities across the United States!

ENERGY STAR’s 6 Most Efficient Dryers

ENERGY STAR, run by the US Environmental Protection Agency, has overseen testing and labeling of quality, energy-efficient products for more than 30 years. The blue ENERGY STAR label signifies brands and models that are leaders in energy efficiency.

ENERGY STAR ranks dryers based on their Combined Energy Factor (CEF), a measure of energy efficiency. The higher a dryer’s CEF, the more energy efficient it is.

ENERGY STAR’s six most energy-efficient clothes dryers are all heat pump dryers (as of January 1, 2023).

Blomberg – DHP24404W 

  • Combined Energy Factor (CEF): 11.0
  • Estimated Annual Energy Use: 217 kWh/yr
  • Estimated Energy Test Cycle Time: 67 minutes
  • Additional Features: Sanitization cycle, Filter cleaning indicator, Steam cycle, Drum light, Time remaining display

Beko – HPD24414W 

  • Combined Energy Factor (CEF): 11.0
  • Estimated Annual Energy Use: 217 kWh/yr
  • Estimated Energy Test Cycle Time: 67 minutes
  • Additional Features: Sanitization cycle, Filter cleaning indicator, Steam cycle, Drum light, Time remaining display

Miele – PDR908 HP

  • Combined Energy Factor (CEF): 9.75
  • Estimated Annual Energy Use: 245 kWh/yr
  • Estimated Energy Test Cycle Time: 53 minutes
  • Additional features: Filter cleaning indicator, Drum light, Wrinkle prevention option, Time remaining display

Asko – T411HS.W.U

  • Combined Energy Factor (CEF): 9.1
  • Estimated Annual Energy Use: 263 kWh/yr
  • Estimated Energy Test Cycle Time: 80 minutes
  • Additional features: Filter cleaning indicator, Drum light, Wrinkle prevention option, Time remaining display

Samsung – DV53BB89**H*

  • Combined Energy Factor (CEF): 8.5
  • Estimated Annual Energy Use: 281 kWh/yr
  • Estimated Energy Test Cycle Time: 69 minutes
  • Additional features: Sanitation cyle, drum capacity 7.8 cu-ft

LG – WKHC202H*A 

  • Combined Energy Factor (CEF): 8.0
  • Estimated Annual Energy Use: 299 kWh/yr
  • Estimated Energy Test Cycle Time: 72 minutes
  • Additional features: Wrinkle prevention option, time remaining display, drum capacity 7.2 cu-ft

This article springs from Electrify Now’s webinar on Heat Pump Dryers. For more strategies and technologies to electrify your home, visit their YouTube Channel.

By Catherine Polslusny

Reference

Underground car parks used to heat buildings above
CategoriesSustainable News

Underground car parks used to heat buildings above

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Rather than drab grey walls, underground car parks can now feature stylish, colourful panels that are also sustainably heating the buildings above. Seeking to harness the power of shallow geothermal energy, Swiss startup Enerdrape has created modular, renewable energy panels that are customisable with any look, and easy to install and manage.

Currently being tested in an underground parking lot in Lausanne, the company expects to supply the apartment building above with around one-third of its energy needs. The metal panels are the same thickness as a painter’s canvas and can be retrofitted to any structure with a wall in direct contact with the surrounding soil.

The panels absorb heat from ground as well as ambient air from the underground structure. This is why car parks are an ideal location. Rather than waste the heat given off by vehicles after they have been driven, the panels absorb it, and the connected piping system sends it to the structure’s heating and cooling system.

The Enerdrape system can work for a single building or can connect to district heating and cooling lines. It can also be used alongside other heat and energy sources as part of a suite of power options.

Geothermal energy is becoming a more popular addition to renewable energy sources as technologies develop and storing and transfer systems become more efficient. Springwise recently spotted a new drilling technology that makes ultra-deep geothermal energy a possibility, along with plans to turn disused coal mines into zero-carbon heat sources for local communities.  

Written by: Keely Khoury

18th May 2022

Email: margaux.peltier@epfl.ch

Website: enerdrape.com

Reference