Decentralised packed heat pump system

The flexible and modular Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) and Domestic Hot Water (DHW) system is designed and tailored for each context, in order to foster the active role of PEBs in the transformation of the energy market towards decarbonization. The flexible and modular HVAC and DHW system increases self-consumption to empower end-users, improve storage capacity and incorporate demand-response capacity to reduce peak electricity demand.

The packed heat pump system can also be pre-configured with energy monitoring and renewable energy storage to enable quick and simple installation. Since each home is very different (including size, heat loss, thermal mass, occupancy density and patterns, user behaviour and other factors), Ventive will use an array of integrated sensors to assess the indoor environment and adapt the performance of each system – learning and optimising its operation as well as user interaction to drive improvements in energy efficiency, energy storage and load shifting capacity.

Key innovation figures

Decentralized packed heat pump system is an all-in-one system for heating, domestic hot water and ventilation with demand driven and learning controls for an optimal demand/response management.

The heat pump can work with outdoor air or exhaust air as source or in hybrid mode and provide ventilation with or without heat recovery, as well as working in reversible mode to provide cooling.

The unit is coupled with a ventilation unit and a phase change materials (PCM) thermal storage enabling the packed heat pump (based on EAHP) to output up to 6kW during the peak thermal demand supplementing the compressor with heat energy from the thermal store. This in turn will get replenished off peak when no heating is required. This means that an EAHP can match Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP) for peak output at a much lower cost, lower installation complexity and lower space requirement.

Testing & prototypes

Mk2 design was defined and installed in 6 semidetached houses in Sutton, London. These small-scale pilots allowed to optimize Mk2 design which is more modular (can be transported and mounted in 3 separate modules), compact (lower height) and easier to install.

Functional tests of all components and their controls have been performed to ensure all parts operate as designed and uncover any issues prior to building the full Design Validation (DV) prototypes.

Technology development

Modular Heat Pumps for Cell Based Assembly is an innovative approach to both how heat pumps are designed and how they are built. Ventive developed the radical concept of Integrated Packed Heat Pumps (providing various building services such Hot Water, Ventilation or Energy Storage) build from modular, fully interchangeable ”blocks’ that can be easily and cost effectively assembled in a low cost ‘micro-factory’.

As all Heat Pump ‘blocks’ share the same platform they can be assembled in various combinations (either ASHP or ESHP, with either Exhaust Ventilation or Balanced Ventilation) for various installation variants (indoor or outdoor) while benefitting from mass production of subassemblies. The overall effect will be not just reduced cost of the Packed Heat Pump and the installation but also reduced size, easier installation, and improved aesthetics of the system.