Solid State heat pump, better than existing
 

Did anyone here hear of CoolChips technology?

I was looking for a CoP calculator and stumbled across that site

coolchips.gi/technology/ccalc.shtml

I don't think it is commercial yet, but if it really works as they say, then I cannot wait. I don't reeeeally need a heat pump in my system, but as I improve insulation and close up the leaks of the house, I think I need a ventilation system. In this system, I was thinking of lowering the exhaust air to around freezing, and the heated side of things should be going into the same input as my solar does.

In the cold season, my system will be optimized to cool off the solar panel as much as possible, taking all I can into underfloor heating and other lower temperature uses. If I do that I can suck more heat out of that crucial but scarse winter sun. It might, however, not get sufficiently hot then for the hot water, as I will be heating a lot of water into low 100's F, while I need much more for the hot water really. And the part of the house still heated by radiators.

So this heat pump could be driven by the electrical side of my solar panels, using the inside air of the house (before expelling it), so I get high temperatures in those smaller amounts needed, without using much energy.

osolemio,

This looks very interesting. I looked at the coolchips website. The site itself didn't look too impressive, but then I followed the 'patent trail', and they really do look impressive. The Cool Chips inventor lives (or lived) here in the town where I live.

It would be very interesting to meet him.

-AC_Hacker

Oh really?

Please go and hit him up, and ask when we can expect these units available for bug standard home installations ...

In my upcoming installation I don't really need these, but for sure, it would be great with a solid state design, which doesn't require much maintenance, if any at all. And at the same time, increasing the efficiency from 45 to 55 %, would make it awesome. All we need is that the price will be competitive too.

I would like to use it in future projects, in the current one I am working on, there is mandatory connection to a common central heating system anyway (natural gas fired). Heat pumps are mainly useful when the temperature increase required is not too wide a gap - giving a high CoP.