Forget on-off heaters and air conditioners. New energy-efficient systems are adaptive in real time, allowing precise variable settings to meet your heating and cooling needs, and they can help keep your energy bills low.
Heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC) needs are year-round. They can vary seasonally and in different climates across the country. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says American households spend an average of 52% of their energy on heating and air conditioning.
A major sustainability goal for these HVAC systems is to phase out natural gas appliances and replace them with modern, all-electric ones.
“Electrifying your home means you can heat and cool with electricity and not rely on fossil fuel-burning appliances,” said Nathan Walker, senior vice president at Daikin Comfort Technologies North America, Inc. (Daikin), a leading producer of HVAC products.
High-tech heat pumps
Heat pumps can be used for both heating and cooling. And the term can be confusing.
“An air conditioner takes the heat out of your house and puts it outdoors,” said Doug Widenmann, Daikin’s senior vice president of marketing. “A heat pump is simply an air conditioner that has the ability to reverse its cycle. When in heating mode, it takes heat from the outdoors and moves it inside.”
But not all heat pumps are the same. Conventional HVAC systems have an on/off switch with a fixed speed that starts and stops the heating and cooling. Daikin’s all-electric, adaptive, inverter technology is different because it runs at variable speeds, adjusting to the home’s needs and can be controlled by the homeowner.
Daikin is a pioneer in sustainable technologies, including advanced inverter-based heat pumps with variable speeds.
“Heat pump technology has improved because of inverter compressors,” Widenmann said. “Daikin manufactures its own inverter compressors. And it’s the combination of a heat pump inverter that allows the functionality of affordable, super-efficient systems for both cooling and heating.”
Based on long-standing data, Daikin inverter heat pump technology can extract more efficiently in heating or cooling mode than traditional single stage heat pumps. Inverter systems can extract heat in very cold conditions — as low as -13 °F — while using a limited amount of electricity. In fact, Daikin has just successfully completed the final stage of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Residential Cold Climate Heat Pump Technology Challenge. By bringing together manufacturers, utilities, and other stakeholders, this initiative endeavors to develop next-generation heat pump technology that delivers reliable and energy-efficient heating in extreme weather conditions.
Comfort and convenience
“Your HVAC system is not just about cooling and heating; it’s about managing your entire air stream in your home,” said Lee Smith, Daikin’s vice president of strategic marketing & environmental technology solutions.
These products integrate with smart technology, including controlling your HVAC with a phone app and solar integrations. Whether ducted or ductless systems (wall mounted or floor mounted), or even low-temperature floor heating and radiators, heat pumps seem to fit in most applications whether a heating system is already in the home or not.
Sustainability vision
Since Daikin’s heat pumps produce heat without using standard combustion methods, they can reduce direct CO2 emissions compared to traditional heating systems. They use less energy over their lifetime, making them a cost-effective investment (when compared to traditional heating systems).
“Inverter heat pumps provide long-term performance and reliability. They can be designed and manufactured with less raw materials, including steel, aluminum, and copper, and less refrigerant than conventional HVAC systems. Inverter heat pumps can be lighter and smaller than traditional systems, which means they can be transported more efficiently,” Smith said.
Daikin aims to create HVAC products that meet state and national carbon emissions reduction goals. By reducing greenhouse gas emissions throughout their products’ lifecycles, the company aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
The government is helping consumers adopt this new, efficient technology by offering tax credits, rebates, and other discounts established by the Inflation Reduction Act.
Learn more about Daikin’s inverter heat pump technologies at northamerica-daikin.com/our-impact/dsic
