Heating and cooling manufacturer Mitsubishi has embarked on a campaign to highlight ways to save energy through increased use of heat pump technology. Mitsubishi Green Gateway manager Martin Fahey explains.
We need to reduce the energy we use in our built environment if we are to reach the government's targets for emissions reductions. This is not an easy message to sell as we battle through a recession.

But companies can reduce their carbon footprint if they analyse where they use energy. And this
is where the heat pump can play a crucial role in reducing costs and emissions.

Sustainable method

The technological advances in heat pumps in the past five years mean they now present a viable and sustainable method of heating and cooling - certainly when compared with traditional, carbon-based methods.

Most people now accept the efficiency of ground source heat pumps (GSHP) and this is
underlined by a year-long trial at Mitsubishi's office in Hatfield, Herfordshire.

According to Mitsubishi, the trials show that a GSHP system is more than 500% more efficient at heating a building than a commercial boiler, and more than 300% better at heating and cooling than a typical chiller/boiler combination. This efficiency, it says, translates directly to lower fuel bills.

The tests monitored a GSHP condenser providing heating and cooling, through four ducted indoor units, to a 150m2 open-plan office with a predominantly south-west facing aspect.

This system was compared with an efficient modern boiler - with a coefficient of performance of 0.95 - and a chiller system that has passed the Enhanced Capital Allowance (ECA) scheme
requirements.

Mitsubishi also says it found that an air source heat pump
variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system also surpasses traditional methods in terms of efficiency. When you add the latest technologies, such as heat pump systems that can provide a building's hot water supply, then the savings can be substantial.

Fuel bills

Systems such as Mitsubishi's PWFY, tap into unused energy within VRF air conditioning to offer the building's owners free hot water, thereby removing the need for separate boilers and water heaters. This helps cut fuel bills.

This ability to allow businesses to replace the traditional ways of heating and cooling our buildings is another way that a modern VRF heat pump system can help reduce bills, and aid a reduction in carbon footprints.

I am sure we have all been in buildings where the radiators are belting out heat, while an air conditioning is merrily cooling the room from above.

Better controls and a more vigorous management regime in these buildings will help. Replacing old systems with VRF air conditioning can provide heating and cooling. This offsets the energy used to heat one part of the building with energy needed to cool another, and is a much better way of reducing consumption. It also delivers more control and flexibility for the occupants.
Financial incentive

There are still a few out there who have failed to grasp that air conditioning systems now offer heating as well as cooling. But with many modern VRF systems qualifying for the ECA scheme, there is a real financial incentive for those that have understood the situation.

The ECA scheme allows businesses to offset the capital outlay for the installation of approved equipment against their annual tax bill. This can help justify the initial expenditure and significantly decrease the payback period.

The final area where renewable heat pump technology can help hard-pressed businesses is in replacing old air-conditioning systems. There are thousands of systems that are five, ten years or more old - and these use R22 refrigerant.

This has been phased out and the majority of modern systems now use the more ozone-friendly R410A

At the end of 2009, you will not be able to source new, virgin R22 gas.
so, if you have an old system, you may face serious problems when its time for maintenance. Systems exist that can replace the old air conditioning with modern units, while keeping in place all the old copper piping and, potentially, even the wiring.

These significantly reduce the upheaval of replacement and mean that a system can be upgraded in days rather than weeks.

Few businesses are looking to spend money needlessly in the current climate, but there is a strong case for replacing or upgrading your heating and cooling systems to reduce your monthly outgoings.

Modern life

With the ECA scheme, businesses have a real financial incentive.
Air-conditioning manufacturers have responded by developing heat pump technologies that deliver the internal environmental control that modern life demands, in a sustainable and viable way.