High Efficiency Gas Heat Pump Project
Demonstrate and deploy emerging space and water heating solutions to decarbonize hotels.
Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas)
Recipient
Monterey Park, CA
Recipient Location
22nd
Senate District
49th
Assembly District
Completed
Project Status
Project Result
This project has been cancelled due to the loss of project sites.
The Issue
Large commercial buildings greater than 100,000 square feet use fossil gas energy to provide water heating, as well as space heating and cooling. Adequate zero-emission technologies are not readily available and can create significant economic burdens from high power demand during peak electricity pricing periods.
Project Innovation
This project will deploy emerging and replicable gas heat pump technology in an office building on the NBC Universal campus to demonstrate a reduction of gas consumption of at least 35% and to develop replicable approaches for other large commercial buildings. Gas heat pumps are a high-efficiency technology that can supplement or completely replace traditional boiler systems, which use substantial amounts of fossil gas for water and space heating. The technology uses an engine powered by fossil gas to compress refrigerant similar to existing heat pump technologies, but on a larger commercial scale and without a large electrical demand. The heat from the combustion gases is also used to further improve the heating efficiency. Once the quantifiable and measurable benefits are determined, the project team will distribute the information and raise awareness of this potentially innovative technology. Finally, the team will develop a plan to promote and maximize the benefits in an equitable manner for the local communities where this technology will be deployed.
Project Benefits
This project will develop performance and cost savings data to demonstrate the potential use of high efficiency gas heat pump technologies for large commercial buildings. These buildings use approximately 18 percent of the state's gas. This technology has the potential to double gas savings by switching from gas boilers to gas heat pumps. Gas heat pumps have not been widely adopted in California due to relatively high upfront capital costs, which typically drive design considerations, despite the lifecycle savings from relatively low operating costs. The proposed project will demonstrate the long-term savings and value proposition of this high-efficiency technology for large commercial buildings.
Consumer Appeal
Gas heat pumps are a high-efficiency technology that can be deployed to supplement or replace traditional boiler systems in commercial buildings. By capturing heat from ambient air, gas heat pumps have energy efficiency ratings (Coefficient of Performance) of 1.3 to 2.2. This is significantly higher than traditional boilers (approximate COP of 0.80-85). Gas heat pumps provide energy diversity to increase the resiliency of energy systems.
Affordability
Reduction in fossil gas use directly results in operational cost savings. Gas heat pumps avoid high electrical peak demand charges for large commercial buildings that coincide with times when space and water heating is greatest.
Key Project Members
Peter Tanios
Subrecipients
Arup North America Ltd
US Green Building Council - Los Angeles Chapter
Viridis Consulting
Build Momentum (d.b.a. Momentum)
Match Partners
The Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas)
