The Art of Design Issue 22 2016 | Page 119

119 First House In Scotland Fitted With Groundbreaking “Heating With Ice” Technology Stommel Haus, premium manufacturer of offsite manufactured homes in Germany, equips a private dwelling in Aberdeenshire with ground breaking “Heating with Ice” technology by Viessmann. The innovative ice store system is Additional energy is obtained from The ambient summer heat around the installed in a very energy efficient the freezing process of the water - store, the solar thermal energy and eco timber house from Stommel therefore the term “ice store”. heat which is drawn from the system Haus becoming the first of its kind via an extraction heat exchanger melt in Scotland. This ground breaking Freezing is an exothermic process, i.e. the ice in the ice store and cools the technology recovers energy from only as liquid water changes to solid ice, heating circuit of the house. renewable sources, such as the sun, crystallisation energy (latent heat) is the ambient heat and the soil, to heat released. This latent heat is retained in and cool a building and provides hot the ice store system. water for the house. Benefits of the Solar Ice technology • Combined utilisation of ambient air, the sun and the ground as A heat source management system heat source Drawing energy from ice to heat integrated in the heat pump draws or cool a house sounds a little bit energy from either the ice store or like science fiction, but over the solar thermal panels on the roof. The past 4 years Stommel Haus already ice store also draws energy from the installed many such systems in surrounding ground to regenerate the high COP (Coefficient Of their eco houses in Germany. The heat. In summer the ice store can be Performance) of 5.0. of the heat ice storage system which consists used to provide natural cooling: At the pumps, i.e. for 1 KW electric of an underground water tank, solar end of the heating season, the water in energy, the heat pump produces thermal panels and a state of the art the store is turned to ice. up to 5 KW thermal energy. heat pump supplies energy to the • No drilling – no environmental risk, no permits required • • Low operating costs thanks to Particularly high efficiency heat pump which generates the hot thanks to intelligent heat source water and the heat for the under-floor management and heat pump with heating on all storeys of the house. It RCD (Refrigerant Cycle Diagnostic) also cools the house in summer! system with electronic expansion valve (EEV) The heat pump extracts energy from the water stored in the ice storage tank which is installed under ground. The energy used to provide the heat slowly turns the water in the underground tank to ice. • Easy-to-use control unit integrated in the heat pump www.stommel-haus.co.uk