Heat Pump: Improve My Comfort While Optimizing My Energy Consumption!
Heating or Cooling the Home
Even when the outdoor air is cold, there is always some heat (calories) available in the environment — in the air, water, or ground. The heat pump is a device that efficiently uses these calories to provide heating, avoiding the need to generate heat from scratch.
The heat pump, or HP, can capture, concentrate, and then redistribute these calories to heat or cool the home. Depending on where the heat is captured, there are three main systems:
To capture calories from the air, an air-to-air or air-to-water heat pump is used; to capture calories contained in groundwater, a water-to-water heat pump is used. Finally, a geothermal heat pump is employed when one wants to use the heat contained in the ground.
Taking Heat Where It Exists
Although the process may seem magical, heat pumps operate based on the principles of thermodynamics to transfer heat from one place to another. They draw calories from the air, water, or soil and circulate them through an evaporator, where they are absorbed by a refrigerant fluid at low pressure and low temperature. This fluid is then compressed by the heat pump’s compressor, which increases its temperature. Next, it passes through a condenser, where it releases the accumulated heat. This heat is distributed throughout the home to the areas to be heated.
Finally, an expansion valve returns the fluid to its initial low-pressure, low-temperature state.
This cycle (evaporation, compression, condensation, and expansion) repeats continuously to transfer heat from the cold source to the hot source. To cool the home, the heat pump simply reverses this process, extracting heat from the house and releasing it outdoors.
Savings and Environmental Benefits
The Ether air-to-water model from Thomson Energy distributes heat throughout the home using either low- or high-temperature radiators and/or underfloor heating. The Ether Duo model can also be connected to a hot water tank to provide domestic hot water. As an option, the Ether Duo offers a cooling mode for summer. Such a heat pump is a much more economical and optimized alternative to a traditional air conditioning system.
The Ether heat pump consists of two units: The outdoor unit captures calories from the air using fans, while the indoor unit converts them into heat and distributes it throughout the home.
Although the heat pump consumes electricity to power the fans and compressor, it uses far less than a conventional heating system. Because it transfers more heat than the electrical energy it consumes, it is an energy-efficient solution for heating or cooling buildings. It’s economical — and also much more environmentally friendly. Heating your home while reducing your impact on climate change is possible with a heat pump!
Energy Efficiency
To evaluate a heat pump’s energy efficiency, a Coefficient of Performance (COP) is used. It indicates the amount of heat produced per unit of energy consumed.
The COP is obtained by dividing the heat produced (or transferred) by the heat pump by the electrical energy consumed. It is expressed as a ratio. For example, COP 4:1 means the heat pump produces 4 units of heat for every 1 unit of electrical energy consumed.
The higher the coefficient, the better the performance of the system. Depending on the model and outdoor conditions, the COP of the Ether and Ether Duo ranges between 4.25 and 3.17.
Thanks to DC Inverter Technology, both the indoor and outdoor units of the Ether and Ether Duo continuously adjust the power of the fans and compressor. This allows variable operation, ensuring energy savings and long-term durability, unlike systems that constantly run at full power, stop abruptly, and restart. It also ensures a quiet operation (acoustic power level: 42 dB indoors and 63 dB outdoors).
On average, with Ether heat pumps, 70% of the heat produced for heating and domestic hot water comes from free energy contained in the air, and only 30% from electricity.
A Connected Installation
A wireless Sensys Net control unit combined with Energy Manager Technology regulates the system’s operation, maintaining a constant temperature throughout the home using room sensors. Depending on heating or cooling needs, the device manages power output, saving energy and extending the system’s lifespan.
To ensure optimal comfort even in extreme weather conditions, Ether heat pumps are equipped with an auxiliary heating system. Thus, even at –20°C outdoors, the temperature remains constant. Similarly, the Duo models can maintain water at 60°C with outdoor temperatures as low as –10°C. The Sensys Net controller is also ready for integration with photovoltaic panels to generate domestic hot water.
Finally, the Ariston Net app allows you to remotely control your home’s temperature:
You can turn the unit on or off, select a mode (heating, cooling, automatic, or ventilation), set the desired temperature, or adjust the power level.
