Author name: Dharshini

Solar energy is most broadly utilized for the drying of agricultural products. Solar dryers use this solar energy and create sweltering air used for drying in a considerably more efficient way. Food products like chilies, pickles, amlas, fish, fruits, and spices will have a longer life once they are dried. Drying removes the moisture present in these edible items and also forestalls microorganisms like bacteria and fungi. Drying will also reduce the weight and volume of the product making it easy to store and use. This will eventually decrease the expense of storing, packaging and Transportation. Naturally, Sunlight is most broadly utilized for drying agricultural products. Yet, Solar dryers utilize sunlight-based energy and make sweltering air used for drying in a considerably more efficient way. It is of two types Direct and Indirect. Direct Solar dryers expose the product to direct sunlight and dry up whereas in Indirect dryer’s air is heated and this hot air is passed over the substance to dry the products.   Reasons why Solar Dryers are better than Open Sun Drying Heat intensity is double than open sun’s heat – A solar dryer can get inside temperature like 72°C while the outdoor temperature is still 32°C. This makes the dryers take away moisture from food products and dry it rapidly which is 5 times faster than sunlight heating. This will increase operational productivity with a reduced drying period. Can be used even on rainy days – A Rainy climate is not suitable for the drying process. But using solar dryers can retain heat up to a maximum of 46°C compared to a mere outside temperature of 26°C. Reducing the reliance on labor to keep and store products in case of rain and strong winds can be avoided. Normal drying methods not only attract flies, dust, and other microbes, it also hassles during the rainy season. As Solar dryers have enclosed space this is no longer a problem. Farmers will get a higher and better-quality yield. This will ultimately increase farmer\’s income. Reducing the operational cost. As Solar dryers are a one-time investment you won’t get any other operational cost unlike other dryers using electrical energy. Maintenance costs also very much negligible. It occupies less area. Unlike conventional solar heating where you need a lot of space to spread the food products for drying, in solar dryers, you can stack products in trays and place one above another occupying very little space. You can stack how much you need and it is easily movable. Solar dryers last longer and it is estimated that the average like is around 15-20 years. ROI is very much quicker than conventional heating systems. No Color degradation due to UV rays. Since a layer is present between the food product and the sunlight source, the color and value of the food products are preserved.   Aspiration energy is Designing more effective solar dryers which offer a way to more efficiently preserve your fresh products and better address the global issue of food waste. Click here to know more about our product offerings.

Heat pumps are used for heating as well as cooling. In climatic conditions in India, Heat pump offers energy efficiently throughout the year. You can notice the heat pumps struggling when the temperature drops too low. This can be noticed in cold climates like Hilly areas and areas in North India. An Air source heat pump works by pulling heat from the air outside and transferring this heat into your place. The outdoor unit must have ample heat to provide sufficient heating to the inside. Winters are mild in India. In some cases, the outdoor temperature will be too cold to have an optimal operation. It has been seen that Heat Pumps do not operate efficiently when the outside temperature lies in the range of 25 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat pumps work best when the temperature is above 40 degrees Fahrenheit. That doesn’t mean that the heat pump does not work under 40 degrees Fahrenheit, it just loses its efficiency. At 25-degree Fahrenheit your heat pump still runs, but it will take more energy to transfer the heat since the outdoor contains less heat energy. The amount of energy spent to produce 1 unit of heat will cost more than one unit of electricity. Your outdoor condensing unit can also be iced up, airflow will be severely restricted which results may end up causing severe damage. If the ice remains for a significant period, it’s a problem you want to address quickly. The most common solution for the frozen heat pump is running a defrost cycle. It normally turns on automatically at timed intervals or when the unit detects frost in the system. The defrost cycle reverses the heat pump into air conditioning mode so that it can pump heat to the outdoor unit until it unfreezes. The defrost cycle only runs for around 10-15 minutes and not more than that. Then what is the alternate effective option? You must have a backup heating system, which works when the temperature falls below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. This backup heating system can be any other type of heating system operated only at the time when the heat pump does not offer optimal energy efficiency. If you don’t need a high electric bill, investing in a backup system is the most efficient one. Few backup systems like a gas furnace will be more efficient and reliable and it does not cost much. Running the backup heating system when temperatures become warmer will also increase your heating costs. Heat pumps must be configured automatically to turn on your backup heating system when it reaches a certain temperature. It should also switch back to heat pumps once the temperature climbs above. It is possible to manually switch between these systems. If you have no easy access to fuel sources such as natural gas, the next best thing you can do is to install electric heat strips alongside your heat pump to make it efficient. These strips are heated when electric charge passes through them when the temperature is low, and therefore, can provide a supplementary source of heat. Installation of electric supplementary heating sources will cost much less than a fuel-powered furnace; therefore, it is most likely not a good idea to install a furnace just as the backup heating system.   Reliable Heating, No Matter What! Aspiration energy, we do install energy-efficient heat pumps in commercial and industrial sectors. Contact us to learn more about the installation of heating pumps and other options to provide you with reliable heating, no matter how cold it is outside!

Refrigerants are key components, responsible for the efficient working of heat pumps. The choice of selection and usage plays an important role in this. Hence it is important to understand clearly about refrigerants. What are refrigerants? The working liquids which are used in the process of the refrigeration cycle are called refrigerants. They are commonly used in air conditioning systems and heat pumps. Since refrigerants are toxic, flammable and cause ozone layer depletion they are highly regulated by concerned authorities. You may have a question! If refrigerants are toxic, then how can I choose them? An ideal and user-friendly refrigerant should be non-corrosive, non-toxic, non-flammable, with no ozone depletion. Let us have a look at how refrigerants work in the heat pump. How refrigerants work in heat pumps? As we saw above refrigerants are most importantly used in the refrigeration cycle. Apart from different types of heating and cooling system, all refrigerants work in a similar manner. Refrigerants will pass between the main components of the compressor, condenser, expansion device and the evaporator and remove unwanted heat from one location to another. The common types of refrigerants will have a low boiling point compared to water. This will make them evaporate in a short time and with minimum use of thermal energy. Importance of refrigerant used in heat pumps Toxicity level is low. Non-flammability property. It has zero ozone depletion potential. Very low global warming potential. Excellent thermodynamic properties and low energy requirements. Criteria for selection of refrigerants for heat pumps Before looking into the selection criteria of refrigerants for heat pumps, let us see the characteristics of an ideal refrigerant. It has a normal boiling point below 0 degree Celsius. Ideal refrigerants are non-toxic and non-flammable. It will be easily detectable in case of leakage. Affordable and recyclable. Stable usage under operating conditions. Eco-friendly and low gas flow rate. Here comes the major criteria for selection criteria for refrigerants in heat pumps: Pressure Condensation pressure will vary for different refrigerants at a given temperature. Certain refrigerants will have very high temperature and the pressure will become too high. In that case, those refrigerants cannot be used for heat pumps. On the other hand, low pressure also has a risk side. Low pressure needs high volume thus needs a higher investment. Critical temperature In a refrigerant, the critical temperature is the temperature above which a refrigerant gas (vapour) cannot be liquefied, irrespective of pressure. The refrigerant will reach a supercritical area (the area where pressure and temperature are above critical point) after a certain temperature. Then the fluid and gaseous phase of the refrigerant cannot be no longer distinguished in the supercritical area. Energy Efficiency The energy efficiency varies according to the choice of refrigerants used. Synthetic vs natural refrigerants The contribution of synthetic refrigerants to greenhouse gas incase of leakage will be high. The effect will be 3000 times higher as compared to CO2. How are refrigerants denoted? There are specific codes used to denote refrigerants. The code will begin with letter “R” denoting refrigerant following numbers. The codes will also depict the properties of a particular refrigerant. The general code of refrigerants is Rxyz. Where R(number of C atoms-1)(number of H atoms -1)(number of F atoms). Let us look into the codes of few refrigerants.  R400-series: Zoetrope mixtures which do not have an evaporation point but rather an evaporation range. The Evaporation will not take place on a fixed temperature but will take place during the increase of temperature to a few degrees. R500-series: Azeotrope mixtures that has a fixed evaporation point. R600-series: Organic refrigerants. R700-series: Inorganic refrigerants. Common types of refrigerants used in heat pumps R134a R134a type refrigerant can be used for medium-sized and large heat pump systems. It has higher efficiency when compared to refrigerants R407c and R410a but has lower efficiency compared to NH3 refrigerant. Since it has low-pressure investment cost will be high. R407c and R410a  These are commonly used in small and medium-sized heat pumps. Both the refrigerants are widely used for dual purpose installations. R410a will reach a supercritical state above a 71 °C temperature. Efficiency is higher and investment is low compared to R13a. R600 (butane) and R600a (isobutane)  These refrigerants are usually deployed for temperatures higher than 80 °C. In case of refrigerants R600 and R600a the increase of pressure with temperature is much lower. Since these are fire explosive, installations should be safely done. R717 (Ammonia)  When it comes to industrial usage R717 is the most suitable refrigerant for heat pump. The efficiency of Ammonia is high can be easily applied below 80 °C temperature. The most impressive feature of Ammonia is that it is a natural refrigerant and does not contribute to the greenhouse effect. It is inflammable and toxic. On the other hand, due to its odour, the leakage can be easily sensed. It should be installed according to PGS-13. I hope the above blog has given you a reasonable knowledge about refrigerants. Thinking of installing a suitable heat pump along with a suitable refrigerant for your business? Aspiration Energy provides hyper-efficient heat pumps for heating process in industries. For industries that stick to green energy initiatives, we offer heating solutions that provide long term predictable low-energy costs on a unique monthly performance-based energy payment. We avoid expensive and dirty fossil fuels by adopting proven technologies to both unutilized space and complex applications. Click here @ Aspiration Energy ad connect to us with 0% hesitation for our service.  

What are heat pumps? Heat pumps are a well-known technology and are been widely used not only for heating but also for cooling. They are mechanical devices that transfer heat by extracting low-grade heat from any source and then upgrades the heat to deliver it at a high temperature. Heat pumps are usually more/less similar to refrigeration cycles. Though much of the technology is based on refrigerators, the primary aim of heat pumps is to provide heating, although reverse cycle heat pumps can provide both heating and cooling. Since they are used in recovering waste heat and to raise its temperature to more useful levels they have significant potential for saving energy. The applications of heat pumps can be classified under two categories Residential applications Industrial applications   Residential applications Residential have found to be a successful location to implement the popular application of heat pumps where a large variety of systems exist, depending in part on 1) Whether they are intended for both heating and cooling or only heating. 2) The nature of the low/medium temperature heat source for distributing heat (cold) to the building (air, water, etc.)   Based on their operational functions, Heat pumps are classified into four main categories. 1) Heating-only heat pumps – Space heating/ water heating applications 2) Heating and cooling heat pumps – both space heating and cooling applications 3) Integrated heat pump systems – space heating and cooling, water heating, and sometimes exhaust air heat recovery 4) Heat pump water heaters – water heating There are hundreds of thousands of heat pumps sold each year. The vast majority of these are air and water-source pumps fitted to individual homes. It is said that in single-family and terraced houses using high-performance insulation instead of minimum insulation, reduced electricity power need by 31…36% for AWHP and by 23…30% for GSHP. Comparing apartment buildings with minimum insulation level and high-performance insulation level, the total power need decreased by -25% with AWHP and -21% with GSHP.   Industrial applications Deploying heat pumps is no more a choice if you belong to any one of the following industries: Paper industry At production, paper making emits CO2 and results in high carbon emission. Heat pumps could help in minimum carbon emission and thus in achieving sustainability.  So, if you are into pulp/paper/lumber manufacturing, then heat pumps can help you in the concentration of black liquor, water heating, flash-steam recovery, and product drying. Food and beverages Heat pumps in the food industry can save your costs spent on gas. To your food and beverage industry, heat pumps help in the process of beer brewing and to concentrate waste beer. Not only to concentrate waste beer but also to concentrate liquid products in the dairy industry. Heat pumps in the food and beverage industry are not only a source of cost-saving but are also an environment-friendly resource. Chemical industry The use of heat pumps in the chemical industry has become a hot topic in the past few years due to the limitation of fossil fuels and the need to contribute towards a sustainable future. In the manufacturing of chemical salts, heat pumps are your savior in the process of concentrating salt solutions and in the treatment of the effluent process. Rotation heat pumps find a very advantageous and efficient application when the production process in the chemical industry requires hot water with cool water being used as a source, conventional heat pumps can\’t help industries in achieving this. Instead of generating heat and cold separately, a rotation heat pump is used. Automotive and mechanical industry Heat pumps also help in the Drying and molding process in the automotive industry. Drying processes used in many industries use the ambient air with the help of the rotation heat pump to raise the air temperature for industrial drying and simultaneously cool ambient air for another process thus allowing the waste heat from other processes to be used just as well. Textile industry Heat pumps are useful in textile industry for the purposes of wash water heating space heating concentration of dilute dope stream. Metal industry Heat pumps are very efficient in the Metal industry for Chromating degreasing drying electroplating pickling phosphating purging. Wood Industry Your Wood industry can find heat pumps to be beneficial in the process of cooking, drying, glueing, pickling, pressing, staining, and steaming. Other than these, heat pumps also find to be useful in pharma industry, drinking water processing, steam stripping, electroplating industries, district heating, and solvent recovery.   Hope you are just one step behind  to install heat pumps Here\’s the checklist to finalize your decision Identification– Identify your heat consuming process – medium/temperature/power Direct heat exchange–  Direct heat exchange is possible for waste heat flows with higher temperatures than their potential users. So, you don\’t need a heat pump. Using a heat pump – If waste heat flows temperature is less than the recommended heat temperature, consumers do not offer a possibility for direct heat exchange.  At this point, It may then be an interesting option to upgrade the temperature level using heat pumps.