Air-to-Water Heat Pump & Ventilation Retrofit: A New Free Course Here’s the story of “Finally Fossil-Fuel Free: Air-to-Water Heat Pump & Ventilation Retrofit“, a new free course presented by Brian Just from the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation. His presentation is offered in partnership with the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. Air-to-water… Continue reading “Air-to-Water Heat Pump & Ventilation Retrofit: A New Free Course”
Energy Grid of the Future: A New Free Course Here’s the backstory on “Energy Grid of the Future“, a new free course taught by Fortunat Mueller and offered in partnership with the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association and ReVision Energy: In this presentation you’ll hear the results of the “Grid… Continue reading “Energy Grid of the Future: A New Free Course”
Are Heat Pumps a Form of Renewable Energy? It’s common for policymakers to argue that heat pumps are not a form of renewable energy, says John Siegenthaler, instructor of HeatSpring’s Application of Air-to-Water Heat Pumps for Hydronic Heating & Cooling course. In response to such claims, he argues… Continue reading “Are Heat Pumps a Form of Renewable Energy?”
Popular in Europe and Asia, Air-To-Water Heat Pumps Poised for Growth in the U.S. In Europe and Asia, there were over 2 million air-to-water heat pump systems installed in 2016. In the U.S., there were about 1,000 installed, says John Siegenthaler, instructor of HeatSpring’s “Applications of Air-to-Water Heat Pumps for Hydronic Heating and Cooling,” and… Continue reading “Popular in Europe and Asia, Air-To-Water Heat Pumps Poised for Growth in the U.S.”
Building & Powering an Award-Winning Net Zero Energy Home Can a home be beautiful, powered entirely by solar energy, use sustainable heating and cooling systems and save it’s owners roughly $3,500 a year? Why, yes it can. Just ask Joanne Coons, who built her award winning, single-family, Net Zero Energy… Continue reading “Building & Powering an Award-Winning Net Zero Energy Home”
John Siegenthaler Investigates: Low Ambient Air-to-Water Heat Pumps Low Ambient Air-to-Water Heat Pumps: An emerging renewable heat source for North American hydronic systems. Electrically powered heat pumps, in many varieties, are destined to play an increasingly important role in heating and cooling buildings around the world. Heat pumps capture… Continue reading “John Siegenthaler Investigates: Low Ambient Air-to-Water Heat Pumps”
Site Assessment for Solar Hot Water Heating Systems Without a proper site assessment, you may be putting your solar thermal system at risk for poor performance… This piece originally appeared in Home Power Magazine | Vaughan Woodruff, 2/2014 It is a fairly common occurrence for a solar professional to hear… Continue reading “Site Assessment for Solar Hot Water Heating Systems”
3 Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) System Design Questions Expert Instructor Ryan Carda discusses vertical boring systems, horizontal ground loops and Energy Recovery Ventilator ducting on the IGSHPA Certified GeoExchange Designer (CGD Plus) Training discussion board… Student 1: Would you say that the addition costs associated with vertical boring are greater than the cost… Continue reading “3 Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) System Design Questions”
Commercial Geothermal Heat Pump System Design Enroll in HeatSpring’s free Commercial Geothermal Heat Pump System Design course today! In this free course, Dr. Charles Remund, author of the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) Design Manual, explains how to design a ground heat exchanger for a commercial… Continue reading “Commercial Geothermal Heat Pump System Design”
Free Tool: Water and Hot Water Usage Estimator Download Andy Shapiro‘s FREE Water and Hot Water Usage Estimator! This tool is used in Building Energy Analytics: Measuring and Understanding Building Energy Use course, approved for 10 AIA LU/HSW Credits , 15 Building Performance Institute (BPI) CEUs , 6 GBCI credits (CE Hours for… Continue reading “Free Tool: Water and Hot Water Usage Estimator”
John Siegenthaler Reviews Heat Pumps In the article below, John Siegenthaler, Principal of Appropriate Designs, explains how air-to-water heat pumps offer new opportunities for hydronic pros. At the end of the article, John runs the numbers to answer the question: “How does the performance of… Continue reading “John Siegenthaler Reviews Heat Pumps”
How Massachusett’s Alternative Energy Credit Prices Will Impact Heat Pump and Biomass Operating Costs We passed the Massachusetts “Clean Heat Bill” in July 2014. The final bill number is S. 2214. The bill created a production-based incentive, similar to solar PV renewable energy credits (SRECs), for renewable thermal technologies including solar thermal, air source heat… Continue reading “How Massachusett’s Alternative Energy Credit Prices Will Impact Heat Pump and Biomass Operating Costs”
State-by-State Comparison of Geothermal Heat Pump Legislation I want to thank John Rhyner, Greg Mueller and LI Geo for putting together this report. If you’re new to legislation around renewable thermal technologies this article will provide you a great overview and direction for where you can get… Continue reading “State-by-State Comparison of Geothermal Heat Pump Legislation”
Sizing Heat Pumps to Maximize Geothermal Economics in the Design Process [Video Tutorial] Yes, that’s my picture from my first video tutorial. Last week, I wrote a article on the 4 basic steps to deseigning a geothermal heat pump system for a residential home. To refresh your memory, those steps are 1) perform… Continue reading “Sizing Heat Pumps to Maximize Geothermal Economics in the Design Process [Video Tutorial]”
The Third Most Common Mistake Made Designing Geothermal Heat Pump Systems This is the last part in a three part serious about the three most common errors that geothermal designers make when designing ground source heat pumps system. If you’ve been following, the main concern for a very simple reason, the… Continue reading “The Third Most Common Mistake Made Designing Geothermal Heat Pump Systems”