I was just only reading about a week ago, about a guy here in Oz that has invented a new type of heat pump that uses ambient air as the gas, and his prototype is over 400% efficient. You can install it yourself with ease, as you don't need to gas the system up, as it does it itself when you switch it on, as it draws air in from the environment, and exhaust the air back out into the environment. It also is reverse cycle, where it can cool your home as well, simply by reversing the motor/compressor.
I thought i saved it to my favorites, but apparently not. But it is a very simple device. The biggest problem he is having, is fighting against the big manufactures, who claim it would result in a big loss of income in both gas suppliers and installers. The system is also very easy to make, and very cheap to make. Another case of--we can't save the people money, and be a big loss for multi million dollar companies.
I will see if i can find it again, and post it here, but it is very simple to build--yes, you could DIY.
It works like this-- The motor/compressor unit is housed in a liquid (lite oil) filled compartment, which also has the inlet tubing in it, so as it can also utilize the heat generated by the motor/compressor unit to heat the incoming air-every bit of waste heat is used. So the compressor draws in the ambient air, which is then compressed in the internal condenser inside the home, which causes it to heat up. You then draw the heat off of that condenser via the fan, and then the cooled gas is then either vented back out into the environment, or if that exhaust gas is warmer than the outside air temperature, it is recycled back through the compressor to start the cycle over again.
To operate in reverse cycle, you simply reverse the direction of the compressor. This then draws in the ambient air in through a sealed water evaporating unit, and then into the internal condenser, which is under a vacuum state, and the air cools as it moves from a high pressure state, to a lower pressure state. We see this effect with the standard workshop compressor, where the inlet pipe to the compressor gets very cold, and the exhaust pipe from the compressor gets very hot. This heat pump works well with air, as the pressures at which it operates are very high- up to 400psi, but the flow rate is very low, which makes it energy efficient. The 1Kw unit has a heating capacity of 4Kw at an outside air temperature of 2*C.
Brad
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Never let your schooling get in the way of your education.
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