Jane Melia, co-founder and CEO of Harvest, discusses the advantages of teaming a high-end eat pump with a large thermal battery, to coordinate the timing of electricity consumption. Shifting the heat pump load can help reduce both costs and emissions.
We have an antique house in Vermont, and installed geothermal last year. We didn't have ducts and don't have room to add any. However, we do have antique cast iron hot water radiators. It turns out those radiators make *exceptionally good* thermal batteries. They're coupled with a 50 gallon, highly insulated water tank.
We have battery backup for the house, as part of a virtual power plant program by our electric utility. The power company can draw from them during peaks to offset peak load at nearby homes). The geothermal pump isn't backed up by the batteries, but the interior circulator pumps that feed hot water through the radiators are backed up. During a power outage last winter, we found that as the water continued to circulate through the house, the latent heat in the water, combined with radiators' thermal mass kept the house warm for 11 hours on a 23°F day. The house hadn't been insulated, yet, so I imagine now that it's insulated, we may end up with enough latent heat to keep the house warm for 15 or more hours.
Additionally, due to the slow release of heat from the radiators over time, the house doesn't go through the typical overheat-overcool-overheat cycles from the old oil boiler, making it much more comfortable. Despite some very cold overnights, the geothermal never had to run above its lowest power level.
Our heating costs dropped from $730 - $1130/mo for oil & propane down to $230 - $280/mo. The payback period for the geothermal is going to be much quicker than we had estimated, and I'm sure the thermal battery effect from the radiators' thermal mass is a big part of that.
We also replaced our propane hot water heater with a heat pump one. We're remodeling our kitchen at the moment, and will be arranging the ducts for the water heater to blow cold air behind the refrigerator, and pull warm air from behind the oven. We don't know what the impact will be overall, because we don't use the oven that much, but hopefully, it'll result in a net power savings overall.
This was SOOO cool! Going to inquire more, and met someone on our ND who has this (I posted a link to this podcast there). Question: would it ever make sense to store coolth? Another tank of this time cold water?
I want one. Or two. (I think my house needs more than one outdoor unit in the sizes SanCO2 makes) I've kinda thought about doing something similar but it would be a science experiment needing a really committed plumber and a sheet metal company to put in the fan coil.
I know buildings around here using SanCO2 for DHW only. They work great. One nice thing alluded to is that by keeping all the refrigerant in the outdoor unit, you don't need a refrigerant-certified installer.
I worked on residential solar thermal heat/DHW years ago. Some of our systems weren't too different.
I am building a new house in Maine and we have designed a system similar to this. But Maine has a lot of homes with hot water radiators and it has been a tough nut to crack. Efficiency Maine is running a pilot very similar to this- they should connect to them.
This is what I came here to say. In the Northeast we have a lot of radiator / hot water systems. Many converted from steam, and now run gas fired hot water. So if you're targeting existing structures, it's helpful to know whether the system works with hot water radiators. It seems that forced hot water systems are designed to provide water at 180° and in the podcast it seems like 150° in the hot water tank. A longer cycle time, a slow warming house, maybe too much of a difference?
Folks, the Harvest system circulates potable (drinking) water to the storage tank and coil in the fan coil. So unless another HX is installed (between potable and heating HW) it won't be utilized with existing HW systems. I think even the fan coil coil needs a special rating for use with potable water.
There are other companies making water-water (for "geo") and air-water heating heat pumps. These may also heat domestic HW through another HX or not. In the EU, there are many many models to choose from, often utilizing a similar outdoor unit design (all the refrigerant is factory sealed there; heating water comes in an out of the building). They call them "monobloc" and in many cases utilize propane (R-290) as the "refrigerant."
Generally providing 160F HW in the high temperature versions, but most of EU experience subzero outdoor temps and their HW systems have generally utilized this slightly cooler water.
It's nice to read of folks using 140F water in their ancient radiators. American "baseboards" are a bigger problem.
We did an experiment with our heating system before installing the geothermal. We turned the oil boiler down to its lowest heat setting (140°F) for the winter before to verify that the house would remain warm. It did. That was what we needed to confirm that a heat pump system could work. Interestingly, the geo is set to provide 120°F water, and it still worked perfectly. We couldn't be happier!
I too feel a great sense of urgency, and she is doing great work.
Just copied this from FB. It somehow seems relevant.
Last week a wind storm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes in Washington. This power outages was the first one we had our Kia EV9 for -- as well as an awesome standalone whole-house battery, in our case the EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra -- and the combo was a game changer!
The EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra is a giant battery + inverter. In addition to regular 120v plugs, it has a 240v 30A output just like a regular generator, letting us plug it into a transfer switch and thus connect it to our home's electrical panel. The EcoFlow allowed us to keep most of our circuits running: fridge, microwave, lights, various electronics, etc; we could even run our water heater, though we kept that to a minimum (but boy, was the hot shower nice!). When needed (e.g., for our water pump or the water heater), it could output a huge burst of power -- way higher than what our EV's 120v 15A circuit could have. But the best thing was that we could replenish the EcoFlow's power from our electric vehicle, since -- except during bursts -- our baseline electric needs were on average significantly smaller than what the EV could provide.
By itself, with liberal usage of all the circuits we wanted, the fully-charged EcoFlow could power our home for 8-10 hours. So with the EV9 -- whose battery capacity is ~13x of the EcoFlow -- feeding it, it could easily give us 4+ days. Moreover, because the EcoFlow is separate from the car, I knew I could leave it powering the home while I myself left to run some errands and help my parents; knowing that, once I get back, I can quickly replenish it!
And the best part, had the storm lasted longer: The electric vehicle is a giant battery pack on wheels! To test the concept, and because I had used up some of the EV's capacity by driving, I took a trip to the charging station the day after the storm. The Electrify America app showed me that the nearest station was operational, just like I expected: even though our own rural home was without power, of course the more densely-populated areas and businesses were restored. I drove there around 9pm in the evening; had no waiting time; plugged the EV into a DC fast charger; went inside the adjacent QFC to get sushi; got back into the car to eat it; and was amazed to see that even in those 15-20 minutes, the car had gone from 40% to 80%! Just like that, we would be good to go for a few more days! The process was so easy that I took another celebratory hot shower, feeling like I could afford the extravagance, since bringing home a "full tank" of electricity was really a non-issue.
Compared to our previous setup -- of dragging out a portable generator, trying to get the dang thing to start, choosing only the truly critical circuits (both because we wanted to use as little propane as possible, and because I didn't want to damage lights and electronics with fluctuating power), and hearing and smelling it outside -- my new setup felt revolutionary. I realize that it's not a true apples-to-apples comparison: there are of course excellent [and expensive] whole-house generators that DO provide consistent power and have a giant propane tank to fuel them. BUT, I didn't want to spend some $15k on an excellent system that I only use a couple times per year, and that is fundamentally not environmentally friendly. Whereas with my system, I was able to spend just a fraction of the cost on the whole-house battery (~$5k for the EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra), and invest the rest into a shiny new electric vehicle that I use and enjoy every day!
P.S.: A low-key solution that involves an EV and nothing else -- and what I ended up doing for my parents -- is just running an extension cord from the vehicle into the home, and plugging in a select few things (a fridge, a floor lamp, and a microwave -- just being sure to alternate the microwave and fridge usage, to avoid exceeding max wattage). If you're OK with "roughing it" or live in a dense neighborhood and can expect to get power back on within a day, this is totally survivable. But the whole-house battery + EV combo is positively deluxe!
IMO the true cost of Heat Pump ownership is not considered. Professional maintenance and service are expensive and customers are surprised at the cost when needed. I see projects near me with really terrible installation practices that are destined to fail. As an industry we need to realize that Heat Pumps are not the silver bullet we are told they are. I will agree they are the future but the efficiency comes at a cost. All I see and hear from the industry is that they are so very efficient and will save you a lot of money. Everything gets dirty and can potentially need major service and that negates the high efficiency very quickly. I don't hear anyone talking about that. We need more and better trained technicians to install, service and maintain Heat Pumps.
This is such an amazing technology... for the West coast and the rare well insulated house in the North. When it got to -20F last winter my Madison based house used 340 kWh of NG in one day. You see how a 14 kWh hot water tank isn't going to be enough battery for this situation.
You really didn't ask about the house in Edmonton, I'd guess it's a passive house--it would have been an interesting line of questioning.
I would also point out that my cold water enters my house much colder than your guests assumed 70F in the winter.
Now, as you say, the heat pump will work to heat the house. And CO2 heat pumps are amazing for the North because they can get an amazing COP of 2.5+ at -20F. But the demand on the grid for millions of homes, each wanting 136kWh in a day is going to be amazing, 1.5 GW average for 48h to Dane County (the county Madison WI is in) for the cold snap. That's a lot of power lines!
But the actual issue here may be that we simply need code that requires more insulation than you can get in a 2x4 wall. I'd love to hear some system-level overview for "how can we heat the twin cities in the winter." That's probably the anti-sweet spot for large and cold that's the hardest.
Another great podcast. It raised a couple of questions. 1. Does the system work with cast iron radiators which usually require 180 degree water? Does the system require new radiators thereby increasing the cost above comparable systems.
2. What about A/C? With rising temps, many homeowners first foray into heat pumps is fo A/C. Does Harvest have a solution?
I used comfort-craftsmen.com to install Air to Water Heat Pump with no modification to fin tube baseboards from 1989. Water tank ranges from 90 - 130F. Moderate air sealing and cellulose made it possible. gas meter is gone & last 2 winters were great.
We have an antique house in Vermont, and installed geothermal last year. We didn't have ducts and don't have room to add any. However, we do have antique cast iron hot water radiators. It turns out those radiators make *exceptionally good* thermal batteries. They're coupled with a 50 gallon, highly insulated water tank.
We have battery backup for the house, as part of a virtual power plant program by our electric utility. The power company can draw from them during peaks to offset peak load at nearby homes). The geothermal pump isn't backed up by the batteries, but the interior circulator pumps that feed hot water through the radiators are backed up. During a power outage last winter, we found that as the water continued to circulate through the house, the latent heat in the water, combined with radiators' thermal mass kept the house warm for 11 hours on a 23°F day. The house hadn't been insulated, yet, so I imagine now that it's insulated, we may end up with enough latent heat to keep the house warm for 15 or more hours.
Additionally, due to the slow release of heat from the radiators over time, the house doesn't go through the typical overheat-overcool-overheat cycles from the old oil boiler, making it much more comfortable. Despite some very cold overnights, the geothermal never had to run above its lowest power level.
Our heating costs dropped from $730 - $1130/mo for oil & propane down to $230 - $280/mo. The payback period for the geothermal is going to be much quicker than we had estimated, and I'm sure the thermal battery effect from the radiators' thermal mass is a big part of that.
We also replaced our propane hot water heater with a heat pump one. We're remodeling our kitchen at the moment, and will be arranging the ducts for the water heater to blow cold air behind the refrigerator, and pull warm air from behind the oven. We don't know what the impact will be overall, because we don't use the oven that much, but hopefully, it'll result in a net power savings overall.
This was SOOO cool! Going to inquire more, and met someone on our ND who has this (I posted a link to this podcast there). Question: would it ever make sense to store coolth? Another tank of this time cold water?
I want one. Or two. (I think my house needs more than one outdoor unit in the sizes SanCO2 makes) I've kinda thought about doing something similar but it would be a science experiment needing a really committed plumber and a sheet metal company to put in the fan coil.
I know buildings around here using SanCO2 for DHW only. They work great. One nice thing alluded to is that by keeping all the refrigerant in the outdoor unit, you don't need a refrigerant-certified installer.
I worked on residential solar thermal heat/DHW years ago. Some of our systems weren't too different.
I am building a new house in Maine and we have designed a system similar to this. But Maine has a lot of homes with hot water radiators and it has been a tough nut to crack. Efficiency Maine is running a pilot very similar to this- they should connect to them.
Thank you Jane and David! Here is hoping Harvest flourishes and grows quickly. It cannot happen soon enough.
This is what I came here to say. In the Northeast we have a lot of radiator / hot water systems. Many converted from steam, and now run gas fired hot water. So if you're targeting existing structures, it's helpful to know whether the system works with hot water radiators. It seems that forced hot water systems are designed to provide water at 180° and in the podcast it seems like 150° in the hot water tank. A longer cycle time, a slow warming house, maybe too much of a difference?
Folks, the Harvest system circulates potable (drinking) water to the storage tank and coil in the fan coil. So unless another HX is installed (between potable and heating HW) it won't be utilized with existing HW systems. I think even the fan coil coil needs a special rating for use with potable water.
There are other companies making water-water (for "geo") and air-water heating heat pumps. These may also heat domestic HW through another HX or not. In the EU, there are many many models to choose from, often utilizing a similar outdoor unit design (all the refrigerant is factory sealed there; heating water comes in an out of the building). They call them "monobloc" and in many cases utilize propane (R-290) as the "refrigerant."
Generally providing 160F HW in the high temperature versions, but most of EU experience subzero outdoor temps and their HW systems have generally utilized this slightly cooler water.
It's nice to read of folks using 140F water in their ancient radiators. American "baseboards" are a bigger problem.
We did an experiment with our heating system before installing the geothermal. We turned the oil boiler down to its lowest heat setting (140°F) for the winter before to verify that the house would remain warm. It did. That was what we needed to confirm that a heat pump system could work. Interestingly, the geo is set to provide 120°F water, and it still worked perfectly. We couldn't be happier!
Thanks, good to hear!
I too feel a great sense of urgency, and she is doing great work.
Just copied this from FB. It somehow seems relevant.
Last week a wind storm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes in Washington. This power outages was the first one we had our Kia EV9 for -- as well as an awesome standalone whole-house battery, in our case the EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra -- and the combo was a game changer!
The EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra is a giant battery + inverter. In addition to regular 120v plugs, it has a 240v 30A output just like a regular generator, letting us plug it into a transfer switch and thus connect it to our home's electrical panel. The EcoFlow allowed us to keep most of our circuits running: fridge, microwave, lights, various electronics, etc; we could even run our water heater, though we kept that to a minimum (but boy, was the hot shower nice!). When needed (e.g., for our water pump or the water heater), it could output a huge burst of power -- way higher than what our EV's 120v 15A circuit could have. But the best thing was that we could replenish the EcoFlow's power from our electric vehicle, since -- except during bursts -- our baseline electric needs were on average significantly smaller than what the EV could provide.
By itself, with liberal usage of all the circuits we wanted, the fully-charged EcoFlow could power our home for 8-10 hours. So with the EV9 -- whose battery capacity is ~13x of the EcoFlow -- feeding it, it could easily give us 4+ days. Moreover, because the EcoFlow is separate from the car, I knew I could leave it powering the home while I myself left to run some errands and help my parents; knowing that, once I get back, I can quickly replenish it!
And the best part, had the storm lasted longer: The electric vehicle is a giant battery pack on wheels! To test the concept, and because I had used up some of the EV's capacity by driving, I took a trip to the charging station the day after the storm. The Electrify America app showed me that the nearest station was operational, just like I expected: even though our own rural home was without power, of course the more densely-populated areas and businesses were restored. I drove there around 9pm in the evening; had no waiting time; plugged the EV into a DC fast charger; went inside the adjacent QFC to get sushi; got back into the car to eat it; and was amazed to see that even in those 15-20 minutes, the car had gone from 40% to 80%! Just like that, we would be good to go for a few more days! The process was so easy that I took another celebratory hot shower, feeling like I could afford the extravagance, since bringing home a "full tank" of electricity was really a non-issue.
Compared to our previous setup -- of dragging out a portable generator, trying to get the dang thing to start, choosing only the truly critical circuits (both because we wanted to use as little propane as possible, and because I didn't want to damage lights and electronics with fluctuating power), and hearing and smelling it outside -- my new setup felt revolutionary. I realize that it's not a true apples-to-apples comparison: there are of course excellent [and expensive] whole-house generators that DO provide consistent power and have a giant propane tank to fuel them. BUT, I didn't want to spend some $15k on an excellent system that I only use a couple times per year, and that is fundamentally not environmentally friendly. Whereas with my system, I was able to spend just a fraction of the cost on the whole-house battery (~$5k for the EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra), and invest the rest into a shiny new electric vehicle that I use and enjoy every day!
P.S.: A low-key solution that involves an EV and nothing else -- and what I ended up doing for my parents -- is just running an extension cord from the vehicle into the home, and plugging in a select few things (a fridge, a floor lamp, and a microwave -- just being sure to alternate the microwave and fridge usage, to avoid exceeding max wattage). If you're OK with "roughing it" or live in a dense neighborhood and can expect to get power back on within a day, this is totally survivable. But the whole-house battery + EV combo is positively deluxe!
IMO the true cost of Heat Pump ownership is not considered. Professional maintenance and service are expensive and customers are surprised at the cost when needed. I see projects near me with really terrible installation practices that are destined to fail. As an industry we need to realize that Heat Pumps are not the silver bullet we are told they are. I will agree they are the future but the efficiency comes at a cost. All I see and hear from the industry is that they are so very efficient and will save you a lot of money. Everything gets dirty and can potentially need major service and that negates the high efficiency very quickly. I don't hear anyone talking about that. We need more and better trained technicians to install, service and maintain Heat Pumps.
This is such an amazing technology... for the West coast and the rare well insulated house in the North. When it got to -20F last winter my Madison based house used 340 kWh of NG in one day. You see how a 14 kWh hot water tank isn't going to be enough battery for this situation.
You really didn't ask about the house in Edmonton, I'd guess it's a passive house--it would have been an interesting line of questioning.
I would also point out that my cold water enters my house much colder than your guests assumed 70F in the winter.
Now, as you say, the heat pump will work to heat the house. And CO2 heat pumps are amazing for the North because they can get an amazing COP of 2.5+ at -20F. But the demand on the grid for millions of homes, each wanting 136kWh in a day is going to be amazing, 1.5 GW average for 48h to Dane County (the county Madison WI is in) for the cold snap. That's a lot of power lines!
But the actual issue here may be that we simply need code that requires more insulation than you can get in a 2x4 wall. I'd love to hear some system-level overview for "how can we heat the twin cities in the winter." That's probably the anti-sweet spot for large and cold that's the hardest.
Hi Dave,
Another great podcast. It raised a couple of questions. 1. Does the system work with cast iron radiators which usually require 180 degree water? Does the system require new radiators thereby increasing the cost above comparable systems.
2. What about A/C? With rising temps, many homeowners first foray into heat pumps is fo A/C. Does Harvest have a solution?
Thanks
Steve
I used comfort-craftsmen.com to install Air to Water Heat Pump with no modification to fin tube baseboards from 1989. Water tank ranges from 90 - 130F. Moderate air sealing and cellulose made it possible. gas meter is gone & last 2 winters were great.
Would there be any advantage to dumping the heat removed by the (separate) Air Conditioner into the Harvest water tank? Or is that overkill?