IHT™ from ICAX can be retrofitted in some refurbishment projects

The principles underlying IHT™ can be used on some refurbishments.

IHT can recover "waste heat" from some existing air conditioning plants, store the heat in vertical boreholes and recover and recycle the heat in the heating season. A well balanced design can reduce the running cost of air conditioning in summer and heating costs in winter (as well as earning BREEAM points) by using seasonal thermal energy storage systems in existing buildings. Please email us with your plans at an early stage to see how ICAX can help.

Elements of IHT™

The essence of IHT is that solar heat can be collected from dark surfaces (like roads, car parks or playgrounds) by an array of pipes embedded beneath the surface in an asphalt solar collector. Waste heat can also be collected from chillers and air conditioning plants. Heat can be recovered from buildings in the summer to provide cooling. The heat is stored in an insulated ThermalBank beneath the insulated foundation in the ground and retrieved using a ground source heat pump to heat buildings in winter. Heat can also be stored in vertical ThermalBank boreholes in summer for retrieval in winter.

Using smart control technology, the IHT system enhances the performance of Ground Source Heat Pumps. A standard GSHP extracts warmth from the ground and separates this into heat (used to heat a building) and cold (which is returned to the ground). The heat pump, which can yield four kilowatts of heat at a cost of one kilowatt of electricity, is deemed to have a Coefficient of Performance ("CoP") of 4. However, a GSHP needs to pump harder as the ground gets colder as heat is extracted and therefore the CoP of the Heat Pump is likely to fall over the winter season as a whole. Heat is “borrowed” from the ground and creates a thermal “overdraft” in the ground. A GSHP relies on heat gradually migrating back into the thermal overdraft created.

Heat Banking

An IHT system differs from a standard "unassisted" GSHP in that heat is actively “deposited” in the Thermal Bank in advance of the winter season. This greatly reduces the work required of the heat pump to provide heat to the building the following winter. In engineering terms the seasonal Coefficient of Performance of the heat pump is increased from around 2.6 times to around 5.2 times. This transforms the economics of using a Heat Pump.

IHT™ can save over 60% of carbon emissions compared to using a gas boiler for heating.

Heat Capture – Heat Storage – Heat Transfer – Heat Delivery – Heat Balancing

IHT can also balance heating and cooling demands within a building: ICAX can extract heat from a south facing room in summer and use the heat to warm a swimming pool. ICAX can take "waste heat" from chillers and use it to heat hot water, or store the heat in the ground for space heating in winter. ICAX can collect surplus heat from a tennis court and transfer the heat to a swimming pool.

This radical new thermal storage technology is ready to help you address the issue of global warming in a practical, efficient and proven way. Please email us for further details before you embark on constructing new buildings.

High Temperature Heat Pumps

The CoP of a heat pump will generally improve the lower the output temperature delivered: therefore the designer aims for a well designed heat emitter system such as underfloor heating where 40°C is sufficient to provide comfortable temperatures. However, if a heat pump is to be used in an existing building with limited heat emitters for the heat load, such as undersized radiators, then it may be appropriate to specify a high temperature heat pump to avoid the disruption that would be caused by refurbishing the heat emitter system.

There are now heat pumps capable of delivering output temperatures of 80°C which is more than sufficient for DHW needs and to warm a building with undersized radiators. Although the CoP will fall if output temperatures are raised to 80°C, a well designed inverter-driven high temperature heat pump with a good control system, including weather compensation, will only deliver 80°C when it is required: otherwise it will modulate the heat pump to deliver lower temperatures – at a higher efficiency – when the heating load is below peak requirements.

See also: Corporate Social Responsibility and opportunities to reduce carbon emissions from existing buildings.

See also: Renewable Heat

See also: Banking on IHT

See also: Ground Source Heating

See also: Seasonal Thermal Energy Storage