Monday, January 10, 2011

I love our heat pump!

Today in Seattle is one of those cold grey days when it could snow at just about any moment.

But it is warm and cozy down below.  "Why?" he asked rhetorically.   Well, because the heat pump is busy chilling 48° sea water to near freezing, and dumping the heat recovered from it into the cabin.  This is the stream of chilled sea water leaving the boat.

Life is good.
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6 comments:

Chris said...

What is the lowest raw water inlet temperature that your heat pump will still operate at? I'm considering putting one of these in my boat, but we have been experiencing water temps down in the low 40's lately. I had heard that this was one of the drawbacks of a heat pump system over other methods.

Anonymous said...

Good to hear that. Heat pumps are efficient like the poster said. I use "wave heat pump", it's not so expensive as US brands and same efficient.

Christian Holm said...

What product are you using and how long have you been using it.

Robert Salnick said...

Chris -

I'll have to review the documentation, but I don't think it is in there. But the lower the water temperature, the lower the efficiency of the unit, approaching 100% from the high side. All I can say for sure is that it is working great with our water temps in Puget Sound right now.

bob

Robert Salnick said...

Tanker05:

If my memory serves me correctly, it is a Mermaid unit, 18,000 BTU/hr. It was a craigslist buy... more info here.

bob

Robert Salnick said...

Anon:

Yup, they are very efficient. Ours is rated to deliver 18,000 BTU/hr with an energy input of about 4500 BTU/hr, making for an efficiency of approx 400%. Much better than using space heaters (efficiency of 100%) or diesel heat (efficiency of 80%? and much more expensive)

bob

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