Geothermal Air Hybrid

Water & Air Sourced Heat Pumps in One Solution

Geothermal Air Hybrid

In Australia heat pumps are gaining momentum as the running cost savings they offer over other heating solutions has increased over the last 10 years. Along with this, there is a trend overseas to utilise the ground as a heat source. This trend has begun to also spark high interest in Australia as an environmental decision.

Geothermal heating & chilling comes from water loops under the ground. They can be either closed loops or open loops. As well as horizontally or vertically installed. Heat is then either absorbed from the ground or rejected into the ground.

Air source heat pumps use the same heat transference methodologies, but instead of drawing or rejecting the heat from the ground, they use airflow past a refrigeration coil.

Now both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. However, when used together, as a geothermal air hybrid system, they form a fordable and efficient heating or chilling solution.

Geothermal Considerations

Geothermal heat pumps use ground temperatures as their heat source. So it is important to understand your local ground temperatures. The temperature across Australia varies depending on your location.

Quick ground temperature averages:

Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney ~ 18C
Canberra ~ 16C
Brisbane ~ 23C.
Darwin ~ 31C
Hobart ~ 14C.

Alternative Heat Sources

Heat sources that can be used as alternative energy sources can include:

Ground source – geothermal
Cooling Tower – Water source
Waste water – energy reclaim
Heat Exchange – From hot water or trigen set.
etc.

Ambient Considerations

Just like with geothermal heat pumps you need to take operating temperatures in consideration. Air Sourced Heat Pumps relies on ambient temperatures. So by understanding you local temperature ranges can help you select the right equipment.

Ambient temperature averages:

Perth ~ high of 30 C & Low of 9 C
Adelaide ~ high of 29 C & Low of 7 C
Melbourne ~ high of 26 C & Low of 6 C
Sydney ~ high of 26 C & Low of 8 C
Canberra ~ high of 26 C & Low of 1 C
Brisbane ~ high of 30 C & Low of 10 C
Darwin ~ high of 35 C & Low of 5 C
Hobart ~ high of 22 C & Low of 5 C

Best of Both Worlds

When you compare ground temperatures to ambient temperatures you will notice that during summer the air temperature will often be able to provide far more heat energy than the ground. During these warmer days, that Australia enjoys, Air-Sourced heat pumps truly come into their own. They can draw energy almost freely and provide almost 24/7 efficiencies that will rival any other heating solution on the market.

However, in some locations in Australia, especially the mountains and country locations, the temperatures dip at night and drop significantly over winter. During these times Geothermal heat energy is a logical consideration, due to its constant all-year-round temperatures.

Reflecting on this observation it makes sense to have two units. A Geothermal heat pump for winter months and Air-Sourced for the summer months. This combination will then provide the maximum all-year-round efficiency. reducing running costs and increasing the best possible COPs all year long.

However, finding the space for two units let alone the controls to determine when to use one over the other can become a painful and almost unrealistic options for many.

This is why Toyesi decided to build a single heat pump with the controls, geothermal & air-sourced components all built in.

toyesi geo air hybrid - Industry Page - Geothermal Air Hybrid

omni range c40 - Industry Page - Geothermal Air Hybrid

We have taken all the smarts from our PC control board and written them into smart coding for the Innotech controllers. We then took years of engineering knowledge and our understanding of heat dynamics and refrigerants and expanded this to provide our smart Transthermal technology.

Our programming actively monitors both the ground loop & ambient temperatures. Using a heat load matrix it will actively switch sources to find the maximum available energy available, allowing the system to maintain the highest COP at any given time, day or night, summer or winter 265 days of the year.

Available in 5 single staged sizes:

20 kW
26 kW
38 kW
48 kW
58 kW

All feature the same high-quality components of Toyesi’s heat pumps construction which include: 304 Stainless Steel Chassis (316 up-gradable), Baked on Epoxy dipped Coils and your choice of the heat exchanger. Cu-Ni, Titanium or stainless steel.

Links to Heat Pump & Geothermal Solutions

As you may have read in other parts of our website, our focus here at Toyesi is energy-efficient heating and cooling solutions via the use of a Heat Pump.

Heat pumps come in a couple of formats:

Air source heat pump: Uses the outside air as the heat source or heat sink – essentially most reverse cycle air conditioners, hot water heaters and swimming pool heaters etc. (Link opens new page)
Water Source Heat Pump: Uses water as the heat source or heat sink instead of air, and is more common in commercial applications. Large buildings often have large cooling towers. Often over summer cooling towers cool the building down and the excess heat is trapped in a water circuit and then piped through a heat pump and may be used to heat a pool or supply heat to a hot water system.
Ground Source Heat Pump: Also called Geothermal Heat Pumps, use the ground as the heat source or heat sink via pipes that are placed either vertically or horizontally into the ground. These pipes are known as Geo-loops and they usually circulate water, or refrigerant around the loop. The heat pump uses this water loop to absorb or reject heat into the ground. These may be closed loops or open loops.
Geo-Hybrid Heat Pump: – Also known as a duel system that monitors both air and water temperatures and draws or rejects energy from the best option at the time of need. So it combines the combinations above to maintain the highest available efficiency at any given time.