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Are there any that are powered by natural gas instead of electricity?
by ars 8y ago
Are there any that are powered by natural gas instead of electricity?
- colechristensen 8y agoHeat pumps use actual pumps to pressurize a refrigerant. Could you use some sort of natural-gas internal combustion motor instead of an electric motor? Sure, why not. You could use the waste heat from the combustion as a heat input, but the cost of the complexity and achievable efficiency are a big question.
- nkurz 8y agoIf I'm understanding your question correctly, yes. The term you want to search for is "Gas Absorption Heat Pump". Instead of compression, it uses heat (which can be from burning natural gas) to drive a gas (usually ammonia) out of solution. They can reach about a 1.5 COP: https://aceee.org/sites/default/files/files/pdf/conferences/hwf/2016/Garrabrant_Geoghegan_Session3B_HWF16_2.22.16.pdf https://aceee.org/sites/default/files/files/pdf/conferences/....
- ars 8y agoThanks! So I found the GAHP-W LB but the price seems to be a state secret. Also the Lochinvar Optimus, but again, no prices. But thank you - I don't understand why these types of units are not standard, are there downsides I'm not aware of?
- fulafel 8y agoAside from the low COP, the market is much smaller (utilitity gas availability).