I am constantly amazed at how much innovation is happening to support energy efficiency. Heat pumps are ripe with new technologies that promise to increase the range of operation (higher and lower temperatures) and that use a variety of fuel sources (electric, gas, waste heat). Eric Olson, one of our natural gas product managers, has been investigating combination water and space heating systems for residential and commercial applications. These systems come with a wide variety of heat pumps, including the traditional vapor compression systems but also Stirling engine and absorption systems. SMTI is one of the absorption heat pump manufacturers in the United States. Their system has demonstrated efficiency and capacity at low operating temperatures (below freezing). This is good news for the colder areas of our region.
