A tank water heater assembly is provided including a tank water heater and a drain pan provided with a sensor holder for mounting a sensor. The sensor holder accommodates a leak detection sensor at predefined distance above an inner surface of a bottom wall of the drain pan. In this way the presence of harmless small amounts of water in the drain pan do not trigger an alarm. A transport assembly is presented for facilitating transportation of the tank water heater assembly to an installation site and subsequent installation. Finally, a method for installation of a tank water heater assembly is provided.

A heating system including a heat pump; a thermal battery loop including a thermal battery and a pump configured to circulate a working fluid through the thermal battery; a fluid conductor for receiving the first fluid at an inlet at a first temperature and delivering the first fluid at a second temperature; a first heat exchanger configured to thermally couple the heat pump and the fluid conductor at a first location of the fluid conductor; a second heat exchanger configured to thermally couple the thermal battery loop and the heat pump; and a third heat exchanger configured to thermally couple the thermal battery and the fluid conductor at a second location of the fluid conductor, wherein the second location of the fluid conductor is a location downstream from the first location of the fluid conductor between the inlet and the outlet of the fluid conductor.

A heating system including a heat pump; a thermal battery loop including a thermal battery and a pump configured to circulate a working fluid through the thermal battery; a fluid conductor for receiving the first fluid at an inlet at a first temperature and delivering the first fluid at a second temperature; a first heat exchanger configured to thermally couple the heat pump and the fluid conductor at a first location of the fluid conductor; a second heat exchanger configured to thermally couple the thermal battery loop and the heat pump; and a third heat exchanger configured to thermally couple the thermal battery and the fluid conductor at a second location of the fluid conductor, wherein the second location of the fluid conductor is a location downstream from the first location of the fluid conductor between the inlet and the outlet of the fluid conductor.

Non-potable, utility water is circulated by a pump in a closed loop. The utility water is heated by a heat pump. Heat exchange from the utility water heats domestic hot water on demand, eliminating or reducing the need for domestic hot water storage tanks and storage of large quantities of water. In the present invention, fluctuations in condenser water temperature are dampened internally in a condenser water buffer and a control system.

A retrofit heat pump system for a water heater is disclosed. The heat pump system includes a plurality of evaporators to increase the efficiency of heat exchange for the system. The system can also include a plurality of condenser circuits used to heat the water of an existing water tank. A fan disposed in a housing of the heat pump system can draw air across the plurality of evaporators and exhaust cool air external to the heat pump system. The cool air can be exhausted into duct work associated with an air conditioning system of the home. The disclosure also describes a refrigerant distributor for providing uniform liquid refrigerant to the plurality of evaporators.

A water heater includes a tank defining an interior space adapted to contain water and a shroud over the water heater and defining a component space inside the shroud. A first pipe nipple is coupled to a spud of the water heater, the first pipe nipple and spud defining a non-collinear axis that is non-collinear with a pipe axis of a pipe to be fluidly connected to the tank. A flexible connector is connected at one end to the first pipe nipple along the non-collinear axis. A second end of the flexible connector is positioned collinear with the pipe axis. A second pipe nipple is coupled at one end to the second end of the flexible connector and coupled at an opposite end with the pipe. Fluid communication is established between the pipe and the interior space of the tank through the pipe nipple and flexible connector.

Double hybrid heat pumps, systems, and methods of operation that provide increased efficiency in both heating and cooling modes, heated water, and other advantages. The system includes a compressor for compressing low-pressure vapor phase refrigerant to high-pressure vapor phase refrigerant, a refrigerant condensing heat exchanger to heat water and cool the refrigerant to a high-pressure liquid refrigerant, which is provided to a refrigerant cooling heat exchanger in which any remaining high-pressure vapor phase refrigerant is condensed and the high-pressure liquid refrigerant is further cooled. The high-pressure cooled liquid refrigerant is passed through an expansion valve to drop the pressure of the cooled liquid to yield a low-pressure cooled liquid refrigerant or low-pressure cooled two-phase refrigerant. The low-pressure cooled liquid or two-phase refrigerant is then evaporated in a refrigerant evaporating heat exchanger to produce the low-pressure vapor refrigerant that is returned to the compressor.

Double hybrid heat pumps, systems, and methods of operation that provide increased efficiency in both heating and cooling modes, heated water, and other advantages. The system includes a compressor for compressing low-pressure vapor phase refrigerant to high-pressure vapor phase refrigerant, a refrigerant condensing heat exchanger to heat water and cool the refrigerant to a high-pressure liquid refrigerant, which is provided to a refrigerant cooling heat exchanger in which any remaining high-pressure vapor phase refrigerant is condensed and the high-pressure liquid refrigerant is further cooled. The high-pressure cooled liquid refrigerant is passed through an expansion valve to drop the pressure of the cooled liquid to yield a low-pressure cooled liquid refrigerant or low-pressure cooled two-phase refrigerant. The low-pressure cooled liquid or two-phase refrigerant is then evaporated in a refrigerant evaporating heat exchanger to produce the low-pressure vapor refrigerant that is returned to the compressor.

A water distribution apparatus and method including cold and hot water supplies, a fan coil (or chilled beam device), a control valve having cold and hot water inlets and outlets, cold and hot water outputs configured to supply cold and hot water to the fan coil, cold and hot water return inlets configured to receive from the fan coil the water supplied by the cold and/or water outputs and outputting the cold and/or hot water to the cold and hot water supply lines, respectively, via the cold and hot water outlets, respectively. Cold and hot water is supplied from the cold and/or hot water outputs to the fan coil and received into the cold and hot water return inlets, respectively, and the cold and hot water supplied by the cold and hot water outputs to the fan coil is output to the cold and hot water supply lines, respectively.

In a split system heat pump cooling and heating system, an auxiliary hot water storage tank is provided as an energy storage bank. Two sets of coils run through this storage tank, a first set carrying hot refrigerant from the heat pump to deposit energy and a second set carrying hot potable water to remove energy. Valve and switch matrixes are operated at the heat pump to provide hot potable water from the energy storage bank during both normal space heating and cooling operations of the heat pump.