A diagram of a home with a double hybrid heat pump. The heat pump heats a hot water storage tank and supplies hot water to the building through the same pipes that the boiler once used. New ductwork (in red) is added for supplemental heat and air conditioning. (Source: Energy Catalyst)
G.E.T. Staff
For a long time, retrofitting homes with existing hot water boilers has been expensive and time- consuming. But that is changing thanks to an Albany-based startup, Energy Catalyst, which has invented a new hybrid heat pump technology. This new design supplies hot water and air to the building simultaneously, increasing efficiency by 30% while filling the heating gap created by using relatively low temperature hot water in baseboards or radiators.
This may sound like a small accomplishment, but there are millions of homes in the northeast that heat with hot water, and this is the first heat pump that allows them to reuse all of their existing infrastructure and only requires a small amount of ductwork to be added in the basement. “All of these homes have to be converted to clean heat eventually, and this product can do it with 40% lower upfront cost and 30% higher efficiency than ever before,” said founder Matt Desmarais. “Homeowners don’t want to switch to forced air, they like their baseboards and radiators. So, we designed a heat pump that works with the home that they already have. The additional ductwork is from the basement to the first floor only and provides supplemental heating that doesn’t feel drafty and super high efficiency cooling in the summer.”
Energy Catalyst’s five demonstration projects were covered in the December 2021 issue of Green Energy Times, and the early results are in. The season’s efficiency over the course of the winter averaged between 3.8-4.1 COP (coefficient of performance), a large improvement from the Energy Star standard of 3.1. The energy efficient ration (EER) from the early cooling data is about 42 on average, which is a little less than four times more efficient than an Energy Star rated window AC unit.
One of the most surprising things was how well the unit could heat the building with lower temperature hot water. “On a mild winter day, say around 30ºF outside, the unit may be sending only 100 to 110 ºF water to the baseboards, but the home is still perfectly comfortable and heated to the low 70s ºF thanks to the forced air supplement. It makes sense if you think about it, the forced air reduces the total amount of heat that needs to be produced by the baseboard and so the remaining BTUs can be delivered with lower temperature hot water. Several homeowners said that the home was more comfortable after the retrofit than with their oil-fired boiler,” Desmarais said.
One of Energy Catalyst’s demonstration projects was a NY-GEO Top Job Finalist, but the winner of this national contestant went to a project in Wisconsin. During the presentation, Desmarais introduced the company by saying “Our name represents our vision: to be the catalyst for clean energy –hence the name Energy Catalyst.”
The startup recently opened their second location in Watervliet, NY (near the Tri Cities) and is doing all they can to keep up with the surge in orders. This is certainly a company to keep an eye on as they grow throughout New England.
For more information on Energy Catalyst and their innovative new heat pumps, visit their website at www.EnergyCatalyst.org.
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