Efficient heating of sanitary hot water with heat pump

JUANICÓ, LUIS E.; BOVE, ITALO

Revista de Energía de Latinoamérica y el Caribe (ENERLAC)

OLADE (Organización Latinoamericana De Estados)

Lugar: Quito; Año: 2021 vol. 5 p. 94 - 104

2602-8042

This workpresents a thermal and economical assessment about replacing the conventionalhousehold water heater (electrical, 100 % efficiency) with a modern heat pumpwater heater, which efficiency is proportional to the outdoor temperature, butabout three and five times higher than the previous one. Thus, the efficiencycalculated for capitals of Latin-American countries has obtained average valuesranging from 298 % to 434 %. However, the payback period obtained is alsorelated to the electricity tariff and the temperature of the cold-water grid,which varies from 0.064 US$/kWh in Paraguay to 0.233 US$/kWh in Costa Rica, andfrom 10 °C (La Paz) to 26.8 °C (Costa Rica). Thus, a ranking of payback period(replacing/new installation) was performed for average consumption of afive-person family, obtaining values ranging from 2.4/1.4 years (Montevideo) to10.5/6.1 years (Asunción), and also it was calculated the energy annual savingobtaining from 1,436 kWh (Costa Rica) to 2,660 kWh (La Paz). Thus, we havefound great potential for household energy saving in Latin-American countriesby substituting the conventional water heater with a modern heat pump.