One of the latest projects in the DICz development department is the Optimized Heating 4 heat pump. It is a unit designed primarily for the heating of family houses, focusing on the Scandinavian market.
Due to the specifics of this market, where air-conditioning units are often used to heat-up family houses, flats and cottages, Scandinavia is an attractive and evolving market for the sale of this type of air-conditioning unit.
Since the requirements for units for heating are different from the requirements for conventional units and the development of heat pumps is still a new experience for our development department, this project has been demanding in terms of technical solution and its testing, and in project planning aspects.
To determine customers' requirements, close cooperation was established with a sales office in Sweden. After analyzing market requirements and technical solutions, the target air conditioning parameters were set. The main requirement was high heating performance at low outdoor temperatures, warranty of up to -25 ° C and high efficiency and low operating costs (A +++). Equally important were the requirements for adjusting the air conditioning controls, such as a change of starting frequencies, a defrosting cycle tuning, or a new function when the unit reacts to another heat source in the room. At the same time, technical solutions had to be found for the specific problems of heat pumps, such as the discharge of melted water from the heat exchanger of the outdoor unit during the defrosting cycle.
After that, individual components for our units were selected based on requirements and design and software modifications were designed to meet the set goals. These adjustments have been regularly consulted with the Quality, Production Engineering, Production and Purchasing departments, with the goal of achieving trouble-free production on the production line, achieving the lowest possible manufacturing cost and ensuring the required quality of the final product. From the production point of view, the most challenging part proved to be a new three-row heat exchanger of the outdoor unit from both, constructing the heat exchanger itself as well as the brazing at the production line points of view.
Although a long and challenging journey led to the final product, there is a product tailored to the specific requirements of the Scandinavian market at the end of it.
Author: Jan Tichota
Engineer in the Development Department