Heat Pump and Related Articles
Dan Jung – (CEO Arctic Heat Pumps) is awards Top 10 Innovative leaders in renewable energy for 2023. This comes after years of hard work to break the status que in a mature HVAC industry. Cold Climate Heat Pumps have only recently taken center stage as a viable alternative to traditional heating systems. “The HVAC industry has many challenges… Change comes slowly, but surely!” quotes Dan Jung.
With an expanding growth of Arctic Distributors and Wholesalers across North America, Artic Heat Pumps has become a mainstream brand for Hydronic Air-to-Water Heat Pumps. The growth is rapid as homeowners are now embracing the technology and more and more contractors see the long-term sustainability of cold climate heat pumps.
Low temperature pool heat pumps as well as hybrid pool heat pumps that heat and cool are also center stage in the pool industry with Arctic Heat Pumps leading the way in this market as well. Global warming has resulted in the need for pool chillers to actually reduce pool temperatures in the summer months for added comfort in many parts of the USA and Caribbean.
Heat Pumps have been around in the USA and Canada for over 50 years so why has their popularity grown so much in the last 10 years? Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Vermont, Maine and New York all seem to be hot spots in North America for heat pump installations. Perhaps it is the combination of a perfect climate for a heat pump combined with higher than average energy cost? Or perhaps it that installers and contractors feel confident that a heat pump in Nova Scotia will work better than any other type of heating option? When a recent heat pump customer in Maine was asked about why he purchased a cold weather heat pump his answer was because my neighbor purchased one of your heat pumps last year. So perhaps it is the “Jones” effect that people are buying cold weather heat pumps in North Eastern USA more than anywhere else simply because their neighbors are buying them and it has reached a critical mass?
News Release
Dec 22, 2023
Arctic Heat Pumps successfully completes its application with California Energy Commission (CEC). What is often referred to a Title 20, is a strict set of rules and regulations, combined with federal standards, to set minimum efficiency levels for energy and water consumption in products, such as consumer electronics, household appliances, and plumbing equipment. California standards set the path for most to follow. They are considered the premier energy standards and measurements for heat pumps.
Northern Lights successfully certified 4 of their pool heat pumps to meet and exceed the CEC stringent energy efficiency standards with COP ratings as high as 6.2 as well as safety and performance standards. CEO Dan Jung comments that “California has always been a great market for our pool heat pumps. The ability to both heat and cool as well as the tremendous COP energy savings has become very attractive for the California pool climate. There are a lot of pool and hot tub owners that live in areas that require the low operating temperature that gas pool heaters can’t deliver such as in the mountains. The Arctic Heat Pump fits all those needs.” California represents over 12% of the entire population of the United States and is considered the most aggressive state in the USA for clean and renewable energy. California leads the way in mandating ‘Electrification’. “Having the CEC approve our product just opens more doors to an already strong heat pump market”, comments Dan Jung.
One of the most often overlooked areas of a Hydronic Air to Water Heat Pump is the ability to cool as well as heat. Most home owners are familiar with the advantage of radiant floor heating versus centralized forced air heat, but most home owners including builders have no idea that radiant floor cooling is possible and can be very cost effective for those building a home with hydronic heat. Radiant cooling is quiet, dust free, efficient and has been used in Europe for decades. Most important, studies in USA by Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory in California estimate the energy saving of radiant floor cooling to be over 30% of traditional forced air cooling!
The cost savings of heating and cooling with heat pumps continues to increase as energy prices rise and the advantages of air to water heat pumps become more known. The latest trend for heat pump use can be found in the application to heat domestic hot water. Using a heat pumps for hot water use is a great cost saving use and can be easily added to any Arctic Heat Pump system.
Companies such as Rheem, GE and A.O Smith are all now manufacturing integrated heat pump water heaters that use a heat pump to extract the energy from the air and transfer it to the domestic hot water tank. These single tank systems are designed for domestic hot water and unlike an Arctic Heat Pump can do little more than heat water to about 120 F. With an Arctic Heat Pump System a home owner can heat and cool their house, pool or hot tub as well as provide them with domestic hot water all year round.
If you are in new construction phase or retrofitting an existing construction, let us help. We can assist you through the entire design process, as well as put together a complete integrated hydronic heating package from the air to water heat pump to the PEX piping and manifolds and everything in-between!
Arctic Heat Pumps with EVI technology are able to heat a house with outdoor temperatures as low as -30 C (-22F). Variable speed compressor technology adds to the efficiency of these air to water heat pumps. The hydronic heating system can replace most boilers and are ideal for heating with radiant floors, central air handlers or individual room fan coils.
Large Scale Systems can be done by adding multiple heat pumps in parallel. When doing so we recommend the RESOL MX Controller which can pair up to 13 units in series for a very large system size. When adding multiple heat pumps, pipe sizing should be increased after the header to accommodate the added flow of more than one pump. Example if there are three units with 1” piping each, after the header, the piping to the tank should be 1 ¼”-1 ½” (consult a plumber for more technical specifications).
Arctic Heat Pump packages are designed as optimized pre-engineered systems designed to facilitate and simplify the installation while maximizing the performance and reducing system costs. As one of North America’s leading provider of Low Temperature Heat Pumps, our packages use ‘best in class’ industry components that focus on reliability and energy efficiency. The result is the highest performance ratings in the industry!
One of the most asked question is do I need a buffer tank with a hydronic heat pump? Despite trying to save some dollars by not purchasing a buffer tank, it is always recommended and should be included in any hydronic heat pump system including both geo thermal and low temperature heat pumps such as Arctic Heat Pump. There are a few reason why a buffer tank is used.
The Hydronic industry like many other industries has seen a massive shift in focus towards energy efficiency in recent times. Energy Saving Products, who manufactures the Hi-Velocity system, is at the forefront of this shift. Their flagship Hi-Velocity forced air system brings advancements to the hydronic forced air market that are sure to trickle down to the entire industry in the future. Arctic Heat Pumps has partnered with E.S.P in an effort to provide our customers with the ultimate complete home heating and cooling package. Our EVI heat pumps, known industry wide for their cold weather productivity, efficiency and reliability, paired with these modern forced air systems creates a home heating system that is top of class in efficiency, customizability, comfortability, and reliability.
Geothermal heat pumps have been around since the 1980’s and are considered a mature technology. They work well and provide home owners great savings. Both geothermal and air source heat pumps work using virtually the same technology, however low energy costs in North America has resulted in low adoption of Heat pump technology which was more commonly implemented in Europe and Asia.
The majority of our customers use either centralized hydronic forced air (Air Handlers) or in floor radiant systems to distribute their heat pump’s energy into their home air. However, hydronic fan coils are also a great option for some customers and are sometimes overlooked. We have put together a list of situations that would warrant us to recommend that a customer investigate incorporating a fan coil system for their home heating/cooling project instead of hydronic forced air or in floor radiant.
Arctic Cold Climate Heat Pumps are specifically designed to work in temperatures below freezing as low as -25C (-15F). Few people realize that the air below freezing has nearly the same amount of relative energy as it does above freezing. By understanding the concept that air contains energy, we can then begin to understand how a cold climate heat pump can work. Only in space where the temperature is -273 C (absolute zero) is there no energy left in the air.
British Columbia is the one of the first provinces to offer an aggressive rebate program specific to hydronic heat pumps. This provincial initiative is offering up to $4300 in rebates for B.C. residents who are switching from fossil fuels to a qualified air source heat pump like Arctic.
The Arctic Heat Pump is already the most energy efficient air source heat pump for cold climates on the market in North America. However, this is not the only reason that our heat pumps are industry leading for hydronic heating and cooling applications. All of our systems are designed to quickly integrate with a solar thermal heater. This can increase the overall efficiency and operating costs of your system by a further 20%.
VT, USA is the one of the first states to offer an aggressive rebate program specific to hydronic heat pumps. Air to water heat pump qualify for $500 rebate per nominal ton of output. This is a great news for Arctic Heat Pumps as all three of the EVI heat pumps qualify for the Efficiency Vermont energy program.
