Cool Star fires up the heat pump market

A world leader in cooling system innovation, Star Refrigeration has now launched a heat pump solution for the building services market that delivers ‘free’ hot water. Star’s new Envitherm is an environmentally conscious dual-purpose heat pump that generates hot and chilled water simultaneously. It provides air conditioning in large scale buildings that also have a high demand for heating and hot water, such as hotels, apartments and office developments. Envitherm generates chilled water for air conditioning systems, whilst producing hot water at temperatures up to around 70°C for showers and taps. Envitherm is supplied as a single pre-assembled compact unit, and can be used in both new and retrofit installations. Star Refrigeration’s Director of Innovation Dave Pearson says: “With rising energy costs in the HVAC market, heat pumps are becoming an increasingly attractive proposition for the building services industry. Utilising waste heat from air conditioning for useful heating can help cut operating costs and reduce carbon footprint. The system may also be eligible for Renewable Heat Incentives (RHIs).” Envitherm operates with natural carbon dioxide (CO2) refrigerant. With chilled water/glycol as its heat source, the system uses transcritical CO2 compression to produce high grade heat. This heat is capable of raising mains water temperatures to over 70°C in a single pass. Dave Pearson adds: “Envitherm essentially delivers ‘free’ hot water with zero carbon emissions, as water is heated as a by-product of the water/glycol chilling process. When configured to continuously deliver hot water, the initial capital cost of Envitherm will be recovered in less than three years due to energy cost savings. With current carbon reduction funding incentives, the return on investment will typically be under two years.” For futher details, please view our Case Studies.