ENERGY SAVING
Why don’t acr engineers install heat pumps?
Graham Hendra of Freedom Heat Pumps shares his opinion on the dark art of domestic installations.
T
en years ago, I started a heat pump distribution company called Freedom Heat Pumps
alongside sister company Freedom Air Conditioning, which distributes air conditioning. We launched the company with a big party and invited about 100 air conditioning customers and showed them the products.
At the time heat pumps were
in their infancy and we only had split type units to install. In a split heat pump, you have a normal condensing unit tubed to a refrigerant-to-water heat exchanger in the house, usually mounted in a box which looks like a boiler. They seemed like the ultimate vehicle for air conditioning professionals to enter the heating market.
Now, 10 years later, we’ve
managed to convince just three of them this is a good idea. From where I’m sitting it looks like people in air conditioning are busy
30 January 2020
doing commercial work and are happy to leave all the domestic work to the plumbers. When I first started in air
conditioning 30 years ago, I was told that was the year the domestic market was going to take off - everyone was going to have air conditioning at home. Year after year I was told the same thing, but it never happened. We were all convinced the domestic market would take off and we would all be rich from it. It was a dream then and it seems that it’s still a dream now. The domestic air conditioning industry is still small. Ten years ago, heat pumps turned up en masse with all the main manufacturers entering the market - but the people in refrigeration gave them a wide berth and it’s always puzzled me. The domestic market is
interesting - the homeowner pays up front or at least pays a deposit and then pays the rest when you
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