A system for providing air conditioning to a living space and heating potable water. The system comprising a heat pump circuit comprising a compressor for circulating a refrigerant around the heat pump circuit, a first condenser, a second condenser and an evaporator. The evaporator being adapted to receive a first flow of air from an air inlet to transfer heat from the first flow of air to the refrigerant. The first condenser being adapted to receive a flow of water to transfer heat from the refrigerant to the water. The second condenser being adapted to receive a second flow of air to transfer heat from the refrigerant to the second flow of air. The first flow being provided from the evaporator to a living space by an air outlet.

Provided is a hot and cold water mixer capable of performing stable temperature control, including a cold water supply pipe, a hot water supply pipe, a mixing pipe, flow rate adjustment valves, temperature sensors, flow rate sensors, a setting unit, and a control unit. When the control unit determines that either one of the flow rate adjustment valves cannot increase the flow rate, and also determines, by comparing the target flow rate for the one flow rate adjustment valve with the flow rate of water flowing through the one flow rate adjustment valve, that the target flow rate for the one flow rate adjustment valve is higher, the control unit calculates and updates the target flow rate for the other flow rate adjustment valve and controls the other flow rate adjustment valve based on the updated target flow rate.

A method for controlling a water heater comprising: receiving report information transmitted by a user-wearable device at a predetermined frequency; determining whether a user is coming back according to user location information included in the report information; and if the user is coming back, turning on a return water pump to permit water outputted from a water outlet of the water heater to return to the water heater through a water return port. The present disclosure determines a movement direction and the user location by using report information transmitted by the user-wearable device. If the user is coming back, the return water pump is turned on to permit water to return, so that the user can take a hot bath immediately after arriving home, thereby improving user's experience.

Provided is a water heater including a burner that receives a supply of combustion air from a fan, a heat exchanger having a heat transfer tube, and a combustion chamber case in which a combustion chamber of the burner is formed in the interior thereof and which is to be capable of guiding combustion gas generated by the burner to the heat exchanger. The water heater further includes a unit case that surrounds the combustion chamber case, and a region on the outside of the combustion chamber case within the unit case serves as an air pressure chamber having a higher pressure than the combustion chamber. Thus, combustion gas leakage to the outside can be prevented or suppressed appropriately by means of a simple configuration.

A laser based water heating element formed from at least two components, e.g., a shaft and a laser beam generator, wherein the shaft and laser beam generator of the laser based water heating element are axially aligned, i.e., the shaft is centered on the laser beam generator, where the laser beam generator is a self-contained green, infrared and red-line laser module with an integrated laser driver circuit, optics and laser diode such that, in operation, the laser beam generator generates a laser beam with an output power that is sufficient to cause the shaft to generate radiant heat and thereby cause the temperature of water within a water heater to rise.

A refrigeration system includes at least one refrigeration circuit 2. The refrigeration circuit 2 includes a compressor 10, a first heat rejecting heat exchanger 6, a second heat rejecting heat exchanger 8, an expansion valve 12 and a heat absorbing heat exchanger 4. The refrigeration circuit 2 further includes a heat recovery control valve 14 for controlling flow of the compressed refrigerant fluid between the first heat rejecting heat exchanger and the second heat rejecting heat exchanger. The first heat rejecting heat exchanger 6 is for receiving compressed refrigerant fluid from the compressor 10 and exchanging heat between the compressed refrigerant fluid and a second fluid to increase the temperature of the second fluid. The second heat rejecting heat exchanger 8 is for receiving the compressed refrigerant fluid and exchanging heat with ambient air to cool the compressed refrigerant fluid.

A hot water recirculation system for a house or other building causes water to be recirculated to a water heater for reheating until the water is above a set-point temperature at which time the heated water is made available for use at a faucet or other hot water plumbing fixture. Recirculation of hot water takes place only when there is demand for hot water at a hot water plumbing fixture. A flow switching module for use in the hot water recirculation system can selectively direct water supplied to the flow switching module from a water heater either to a hot water plumbing fixture or to return piping for returning the water to the water heater. The flow switching module may be operated manually, automatically, or semi-automatically.

A system for exchanging electrical energy between an electrical energy source and an electrical energy store of a vehicle, wherein the system includes an electrical connection, at least one electronic component, and a cooling device having a heat transfer medium, wherein, when the electrical energy store of the vehicle is connected to the electrical connection and electrical energy is exchanged between the energy source and the electrical energy store via the at least one electronic component, the heat transfer medium of the cooling device is designed to provide heat, which arises during the exchange of electrical energy in the system, to a consumer of the heat, which is coupled to the system and is arranged in a building.

The invention relates to a sensible heat storage apparatus that comprises a core material that can be heated to a high temperature while it has been placed in a heat transfer fluid that absorbs essentially all the heat that is lost by any heat leakages from the core material. Accordingly, there is a very low, or almost absent overall heat loss, even though the sensible heat storage apparatus can store heat at a very high temperature. The gist of the invention is further that the high amount of heat can gradually be transferred to the HTF, which heat can in turn be put to use for domestic applications (e.g. domestic hot water and/or space heating) or for steam generation.

The invention relates to a method for maintaining the temperature of fluid media in pipes even in the event of an interruption of the fluid media flow. In a first step, a heat reservoir layer (1) is produced comprising a latent heat reservoir material (2) and a matrix material (3). In a second step, the heat reservoir layer (1) is either arranged around a pipe (4) and subsequently encased with a heat damping material (5) or the heat reservoir layer (1) is brought into contact with heat damping material (5), whereby a heat reservoir damper composite (51) is obtained, and the pipe (4) is then encased with the heat reservoir damper composite (51) such that the heat reservoir layer (1) of the heat reservoir damper composite (51) lies between the pipe (4) and the heat damping material (5) of the heat reservoir damping composite (51).