Exploiting the economic benefits of heat pumps
Heat-pump technology provides a cost effective way of cooling kitchens by delivering the extracted heat to domestic hot water.
The use of Calorex heat-pump technology to cool kitchens and cellars and put the extracted heat into domestic hot water has demonstrated its effectiveness in three applications. John Brinkley of Brinkley’s restaurants, based in and around London, has installed a Calorex 450SC in the kitchen of the popular Union Café in Marylebone Lane. Richard Carrington, sales director with Calorex, explains, ‘Kitchens are an ideal location for such an application of heat pumps because they not only create a more comfortable working environment in the kitchen itself, but also offer the most economic method of producing hot water. ‘Simple air-conditioning units offer nothing back in return but, in comparison, heat pumps not only deliver that air conditioning but offer free hot water and substantial energy-savings bonuses that will quickly match and surpass that initial additional outlay.’ Heat pumps also remove moisture from humid atmospheres in far greater quantities than traditional air conditioning. Business woman Su Gillies has installed a 250SC in the kitchen of her supplier of high-quality provisions in Dingwall in the northern highlands of Scotland. It cools the air in the busy kitchen and recirculates the energy to provide constant hot water at a fraction of the price of other energy sources. By removing moisture and heat from the kitchen, the room is kept in the best condition for producing her range of foods, including marmalades, jams, jellies, mustards, herb and fruit vinegars, dressings, chutneys, the popular Ross-shire sauce, fruit juices and mincemeat at Christmas. In a different application, the first of two Calorex cellar-cooling heat pumps in the Hundred House Hotel in Norton, Shropshire, paid for itself within months of installation. The payback of the second was about 18 months. The hotel is considering buying a third. An AW450SC with defrost control in the wine cellar is directly linked into the 1350 litre hot-water storage tanks, producing some 135 litres per hour of hot water at 50°C. Although the wine cellar remains chilled to 10°C, an adjacent beer cellar remained a little warm. A second AW450C heat pump allows the temperature of the wine cellar to drop below 10°C and keep the beer cellar at a constant 13°C. The systems also produces 270 litres per hour of domestic hot water. The two heat pumps have a cooling capacity of 8.8 kW and deliver 12.6 kW to water. Their effective COP is 3.15. sales@calorex.com
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