Heat Pump vs. Nerd

Although efficiency has been improved by a factor of 2.5 over the past decades, an additional increase of 20-50% is expected between now and 2030.

Heat Pumps - Technology Brief

 
One of the guys I work with has a masters in chemistry. You'd think an expert in thermodynamics would understand how heat pumps work. When I told him that 1 unit of electricity can "make" 4 units of heat he got all robo nerdy does not compute.
 
Hal: But the conservation of energy...
 
Me: The electricity doesn't create the thermal energy - the sun puts the energy in the air - You're just setting up a situation where the solar energy in the air wants to transfer to a low boiling point refrigerant in your heat pump loop. Under the right conditions 1 unit of electricity can pull 4 units of solar energy out of the air.
 
Hal: But the conservation of energy...
 
Me: It's not a closed system. You've got solar energy coming in. Don't draw the boundaries around the heat pump. Draw the boundaries to include the sun.
 
Hal: I've just picked up a fault in the AE35 unit. It's going to go 100% failure in 72 hours. 
 
Me: So great to have you as a new power system operator.
 
Hal: My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it I can sing it for you. 

Me: No thanks.

Hal: Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I'm half crazy all for the love of you. It won't be a stylish marriage, I can't afford a carriage. But you'll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two. 

But Maybe...

I recently read a paper called, Do Heat Pump Clothes Dryers Make Sense for the US Market? To my dismay the study found that heat pump clothes dryers (HPCD) don't make economic sense unless you do over 700 dryer loads a year. The problem that HPCDs run into is similar to the problem that hybrid cars have. Namely, high upfront costs aren't justified by lower operating costs unless you operate a lot.

But maybe... What if you used the HPCD as an auxilary space heater when it wasn't doing the laundry? If you were like me and could use the heat pump heating to offset resistance heating you could quickly save a pile on your heating bills. I've been golluming a heat pump space heater for years but I don't really have the room for one. I googled high and low but I couldn't find an example of an appliance company like Bosch, GE or Whirlpool working on something like this. I thought WTF... Do I have a gross conceptual error (GCE) or something?

So I started writing letters... Dear Bosch... Dear LBNL... Dear DOE... Dear Energy Nerd.... Dear Top Ten... I really wrote five letters. In the end one of the authors of the original paper I mentioned got back to me. After some back and forth Mr. X agreed that given the right configuration (see picture) the idea of using a HPCD as an auxilary heater would work. He added that this sort of venting configuration is being considered with heat pump water heaters as well. So there you have it.

Ermahgerd

Big News Flying Under the Radar

Look at this little doll

EU rules household PV systems exempt from VAT

Austrian homeowner successfully argued he should not pay VAT when purchasing the system as it is used as an economic activity. Luxembourg based court agrees that regardless of profit or loss, a system which feeds into a grid for payment on a regular basis constitutes an economic activity.

It would be wonderful if the US, Japan, Australia etc. followed suit and made residential photoelectric systems taxless as well.

1.1 Euro/Watt Plant Planned for Spain

Tentusol to build 250 MW PV plant in Cadiz, Spain

Mac Bandy

Sometimes I write letters to various people and organizations. Sometimes they respond.

I met a guy tonight... Tony... He writes fake letters to you name the company. One of his letters was a complaint to a soap company about how he only has 96 parts to wash with Lever 2000. They sent him a letter back and two cases of soap. He did 36ish other fake letters in three months before he got bored with it... Sometimes he got you're an idiot responses back... sometimes he got real deal PR responses back. He's got millions of hits... Six million hits? 16 million hits... I can't remember... Either way for fuck's sake.. The guy knows how to talk.

I tracked down one of his letters.

And then... The gang met up with Tom and Michelle tonight. They were out from Chicago for a look see. Last time we saw them was in Mexico 2010. When I say we I mean there were 10 of us - that's the gang. After Mexico we'd always promised to get together again and here we were doing it. And then we drank. And then we watched the Blackhawks beat the fucking Bruins to win the cup in a crazy ass finish. And then we drank. And then we had a dance off. Yeah... From soap to dope... Good times. And scene..

7.23 cent/kWh FIT

China plans large-scale distributed PV pilots

Details are still sketchy but it looks like the new subsidy program rolling out in China has some notable qualities.

The NEA requires that the chosen parks should be financed by a single development team, using a ‘self-generate/consume’ model, and that the demand of the subsidies should be no more than RMB0.45/kWh.

The first thing that stands out is that this FiT rate of .45 RMB/kWh (7.23 cents/kWh) is extremely low by comparison to any other market. This FiT is half the rate that China was paying out only last year. Coincidentally this FiT rate is on par with residential retail electricity costs. The parity situation means the Chinese market is just on the edge of a self-consumption driven market. Any further movement up in retail rates and/or movement down in FiT rates gives consumers an incentive to self-consume electricity.

The second notable quality with the new subsidy program is the apparent focus on the "self-generate/consume" model. Perhaps it's no coincidence that the FiT rates were ratcheted down to be on par with retail rates? Maybe these guys actually know what they're doing.

Should be an interesting market to watch.