⚡️🔋Current Events 2/22/23: Energy Harvest! An Intro to EV Thermal Management and the Heat Pump Renaissance.
Heat pumps are helping accelerate the electrification of buildings and transport. In today's Current Events, learn more about this wondrous tech and why EVs and heat pumps are a match made in heaven.
Heat pumps have seen a surge in popularity in recent years. They have emerged as a crucial technology in battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs) and residential buildings, offering significant energy savings and improved performance. So what are heat pumps anyway?
For non-scientists, a heat pump is like a magic straw that can suck up heat from one place to release it elsewhere. Many folks also describe them as air conditioners that can work in reverse. The system moves heat around using a refrigerant; a special fluid humans use every day to absorb and release heat energy. The heat pump leverages this nifty property to absorb energy from one environment and pump it elsewhere for release.
We'll use a residential heat pump as an example. In the summer, it absorbs the excess internal heat of a house and pumps it outside. In winter, the system will pull available energy from the space outside the house and pump it indoors to warm the building. A cold-climate heat pump can keep a single-family home nice and warm, even in temperatures as low as -26 degrees Celsius. Such is the magic of the humble heat pump.
As a result of simply transferring heat from one place to another, rather than generating heat themselves, heat pumps are an extremely efficient technology for heating and cooling spaces. In optimal conditions, heat pumps can provide up to three times more heat energy than the electrical energy they consume. You read that right. Heat pumps can be over 300% efficient.
In the automotive world, heat pumps have become a key technology for improving EV energy efficiency and range, particularly in colder climates. The first EV to offer a heat pump was the Nissan Leaf in 2013, available for the SV, the SL Plus, and SV Plus trims. For those in the used market looking at those Leafs for cold climate use, you will want to ensure it has the "hybrid heater system" or the "cold-weather package" to confirm your prospective Leaf comes with a heat pump. In the premium segment, Tesla has been at the forefront of heat pump innovation, introducing their in-house version of the heat pump first in the Model Y. It's now a standard feature in all their vehicles. Mercedes, Polestar, Hyundai, and Kia are just some of the other automakers that have also begun using the technology in their lineups.
Heat pumps improve cabin comfort by providing precise temperature control, vehicle performance by pulling waste heat from the powertrain to warm up the cabin, and range by reducing the energy consumption of the HVAC system. By connecting all the components of an EV that require thermal management to heat pump systems, automakers can take wasted energy from one part and send it wherever the vehicle needs it.
The heat pump renaissance has, of course, not been limited to the automotive industry. Heat pumps are also essential in high-efficiency HVAC systems for residential and commercial buildings. Using one device for heating and cooling eliminates the need for separate large-scale systems, leading to significant cost savings in maintenance and installation. Today's heat pumps usually have intelligent controls and software that allow for fine-tuning temperature, fan speeds, and other settings, leading to even more significant energy savings. In addition, they can be linked to other technologies, such as occupancy sensors and weather forecasting systems, to optimize performance and energy usage.
Modern residential heat pumps also offer a range of other benefits. For example, they can improve air quality by filtering out harmful pollutants and allergens. They provide a more comfortable and consistent indoor environment, with less noise, harshness, and vibration than traditional heating and cooling systems. When used with renewable energy sources such as solar panels, wind turbines, or geothermal systems, these systems can push homes and buildings to incredible levels of energy efficiency. Energy is all around us! We just have to harvest it.
We at Current Events are excited about heat pump technology's continued proliferation and development. At the bottom of the newsletter, I’ve included as exhaustive a list as I can currently find of US market electric cars incorporating heat pumps into their thermal management strategies. Let us know in the comments if there are any we missed. I expect many more models to follow.
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With love and gratitude,
Renato Amboss
Available US Market EVs offering Heat Pumps as of February 22, 2023:
Renato A. Amboss is the author of Current Events, The All-Electric Newsletter. He is also the Founder and First Pilot of Ronin EV. The thoughts and opinions expressed here are his own. None of the views expressed are intended as investment advice of any kind and should not be taken as such. Have a lovely day!