Heat Pump Water Heaters - The Technology
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| Attention plumbers - your customers can get $500 back when they install a heat pump water heater.. |
| Heat Pump Water Heater |
| A heat pump Water Heater (HPWH) is a water heating system that transfers renewable "free heat" from the environment .... |
The Heat Pump uses ambient air as the energy source to heat the water. Air is drawn through the evaporator coil where heat is absorbed by the refrigerant liquid as it turns into a gas. The refrigerant is compressed to become even hotter, then converted to liquid form in the heat exchanger, where the heat is transferred to the hot water. This heat is typically three times the electrical energy consumed by the compressor. The liquid refrigerant is then expanded to a low pressure in a throttling device (typically a thermostatic expansion valve) which cools it down before being injected back into the evaporator to start the cycle again.
Because the system is merely transferring the heat, not creating it, the system is VERY efficient. A typical Heat Pump Water Heater is 300% efficient. For every $1 of electricity needed to run the compressor pump, the equivalent of $3 of heat energy is transferred.