If you are looking for an efficient, clean and economical way to heat your home in winter and have hot water all year round, you have surely heard of aerothermal energy.
This technology uses a heat pump to extract free energy from the outside air and transform it into comfort for your home. It is, without a doubt, one of the most efficient systems on the market, but it is not a "one-size-fits-all" solution.
Aerothermal systems are complex installations. For them to work perfectly and really save you money, it is absolutely essential to carry out an on-site assessment of each home. No two homes are the same, and here we explain the key points that we analyze before starting.
The challenge of the interior space
Aerothermal energy is not just a box on the wall. For the water system to work with maximum efficiency and safety, it requires a series of technical components that go inside the home: an inertia tank (which optimizes the machine's starts and extends its useful life), an expansion vessel (to control the pressure) and a circulation pump.
This means that we need to reserve a dedicated space at home. Approximately, you need a space of about 1.92 meters high, 1.5 meters wide and 0.6 meters deep. It is usually ideal to fit it in a laundry room, a garage or a large built-in wardrobe.
Solutions for apartments:
In medium and small apartments, of about 70 or 80 m², the distribution of space changes and multi-combinable alternatives are often sought. In these cases, you can resort to configurations that we call 4x1 systems.
What exactly does this mean? The rule is simple: 1 outdoor unit is responsible for powering 4 different indoor components. This versatility allows you to centralize energy production and distribute it throughout the house according to your needs. These 4 indoor elements are usually:
- Split / Fan-coil units: Scattered throughout the different rooms (living room, bedrooms) to directly air-condition the environment.
- The DHW (Domestic Hot Water) storage system: The tank responsible for supplying hot water for the showers and taps in the house.
The community factor: If you live in a block of flats, there is a mandatory bureaucratic step. Before doing anything, you should ask the community of neighbors where the outdoor unit can be placed. Depending on the building or city council regulations, it can be installed on the facade, on the balcony or, in many cases, the wiring and pipes will have to be brought to the roof of the building.
The perfect tandem: Aerothermal + Solar Panels
If aerothermal alone is already efficient, combining it with an installation of photovoltaic solar panels multiplies the savings dramatically.
Since aerothermal works with electricity to move the heat from the air, if this electricity comes directly from the Sun through your roof, the cost of air conditioning your home and heating the water is reduced to practically zero for many hours of the day. To understand why this system is so powerful, you need to know a key technical concept: the COP (Coefficient of Performance).
What is the COP?
It is the data that measures the efficiency of a heat pump. For example, if an aerothermal machine has a COP of 4, it means that for every 1 kW of electricity it consumes, it is capable of generating 4 kW of thermal power (heat) for your home. 75% of the energy it gives you is completely free, extracted from the air in the street.
If you add to this high performance (COP) that the kilowatt of electricity that the machine consumes is generated by you yourself with your vull.cat panels, aerothermal becomes the most profitable, ecological and intelligent system for any home.
At vull.cat we analyze your space, your climate and your community to design the system that will really save you money.
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