Quote:
Originally Posted by hamsterpower
After thinking about this over night...
|
You might be giving up too soon...
Did you gather any data regarding how much power those appliances you were considering, actually used? This could point you in the direction of the most complimentary appliances.
There already are some combined appliances in Europe. One that I know of is a small active HRV that scavenges heat from outgoing air (after the HRV) and dumps the heat into a water heater, or alternatively a pre-heater.
Also, if you are running an A/C for the cold air it produces, and a refrigerator, you could dump the heat into a ground heat reservoir.
You'd be raising the efficiency of your cold-producing appliances all year long, and if you use geothermal heating, you'd get the stored heat back in the winter. Figure that heat travels about 2 feet per month in dry earth.
Also, I have seen heat pump water heater installations where the cold air output was directed into the living space during the summer to assist with A/C and directed outside in the winter when it wasn't needed. Outside air was use as the input in both cases.
-AC