To meet the carbon reduction goals set forth in the Green New Deal, policymakers at the national-state-county and city levels are adopting whole-building electrification policy standards that have already been set in some trailblazing cities in the U.S. Electrifying our building stock will have the most dramatic impact on our carbon reduction goals.
The engineers at Taitem are already designing buildings in NYS that will be free of fossil fuel use onsite and able to take advantage of an increasingly cleaner electric grid. This is an important step in addressing local and regional carbon emission reduction goals and one that is becoming more attainable as demand for products that support electrified buildings increases.
As buildings designers, developers and engineers, we will all play a role in the electrification of our building stock in NYS and helping to reduce the amount of carbon emissions our buildings create.
Efficient air source heat pump systems for heating and cooling have already been widely adopted state-wide and are greatly improving the efficiency of our buildings. We’re seeing consumers comfort with these systems grow and contractors offering to install them as design/build, as well as other indicators that building electrification has moved beyond early adoption. However, one area that has been especially challenging to efficiently electrify is domestic hot water for multifamily and commercial buildings. Electric resistance hot water heaters are inefficient and result in high electricity demand while gas systems still rely on the use of fossil fuels.
With all the forward movement, there have been hurdles in electrifying hot water heating systems. Storage tank-type, heat-pump water heaters also have several issues, including taking up lots of space, stealing heat from the space, and slow recovery. Our engineers have overcome these challenges by designing innovative solutions using air to water heat pumps that are currently on the market. Air to water heat pump systems work like a reverse air conditioner, taking heat from outdoors and pumping it into water.
The design on one of our most recent projects included a cutting-edge air to water heat pump technology for domestic hot water generation, which we hope will set an example for other building designers. The Sanden SANCO2™ Heat Pump Water Heater we used for this design is not only more efficient than standard gas, but it also uses carbon dioxide as the refrigerant, which has the lowest global warming potential of all refrigerants on the market.
This system is comprised of (16) Sanden units, 1,000 gallons of storage and two additional 119-gallon tanks with electric elements. The entire system is located in the mechanical room on the first floor with the Sanden units on the adjacent exterior wall. Water is stored at 150°F and is mixed down to 135°F for distribution throughout the building. The Sanden system also incorporates drain back for freeze protection.
While there are a limited number of air to water heat pump products available, we’re feeling confident that competition in the market for these products will soon shift. We’re seeing utilities state-wide encouraging whole building electrification and empowering consumers to move toward electric systems which will, in turn, drive manufacturers to bring additional product options to the market. However, even with the limited number of products available, we’re already designing high-efficiency heat pump water heating systems that work in our cold climate.
Not only are air to water heat pumps 200-400% more efficient than traditional gas or electric resistance water heaters, they also rely solely on electricity. This means that they help our high-performance buildings save money now while significantly reduce our carbon emissions. As our electricity grid continues to become cleaner, buildings utilizing these technologies will also have lower carbon emissions.