The Hottest HVAC Designs for the Coldest Climates – decarbonizing through ultra high efficiency electrification

A key to decarbonization and net zero buildings is the electrification of heating. Today, especially in cold climates, building heating is typically supplied by high greenhouse gas emitting fossil fuels. With the greening of electrical grids around the world we can decarbonize at the building level.
In commercial applications, heating can be supplied with new highly efficient large electric heat pump units to replace hot water boilers and gas fired packaged units. By extracting heat from the outside air and supplying it into the building as comfort heating or domestic hot water, efficiencies as much as 5x that of fossil fuel equipment can be achieved. Efficiencies can be further increased by matching large heat pumps with geothermal, wastewater energy transfer, or deep lake water heat exchange. During summer months, the heat pump solution is used for high efficiency cooling; reducing project capital, maintenance and operational costs.

When looking at the next generation of building heating, we need to consider energy efficiency, carbon emissions, resiliency, maintenance, capital cost, and operational cost. The presentation will review these constraints through Canadian cold climate case studies and examples of highly efficient heating electrification for commercial comfort heating and domestic hot water applications.