AirTapping

Filed in archive Solar on October 16, 2006

It is never cold in the tropics but that's not any reason why we shouldn't enjoy the benefits of a quick, hot, shower. As a bargain-hunter-slash-energy-researcher-slash-technology-ethusiast, it brings me unparallel joy to report of a recent find, this one from an IFENERGY reader, Shion Deysarkar. Presenting the AirTap, a water heater that its manufacturer, Beyond Pollution, Inc. claims to be three times more efficient as an electric or gas water heater and better than heat pumps or solar panels. Quite a claim, don't you think? Before even looking at the AirTap I thought that solar heaters would be hard to beat (the sun is free, right?)

This is a device you can install at home, by yourself! Beyond Pollution states that you can recover your investment within 2 years or less in savings but to understand how that is possible, the technology must be understood first. Here is what the website has to say about the product.

Around the clock our atmosphere continuously absorbs energy from the sun's rays. As a result, our atmosphere acts as a "solar battery" storing this energy in the form of heat. This is called "air energy".
The AirTapTM harvests this free air energy from the surrounding air and transfers it to the water inside your water heater tank. Thereby the primary energy used to heat your water is solar energy. However, unlike conventional solar water heaters that rely on the sun's rays to directly heat up circulating water, the AirTapTM is able to capture the energy from the sun day or night and even on cloudy, rainy days because it draws the air energy from the solar battery which continuously stores this energy as the earth rotates.

A conventional electric water heater uses resistance elements to generate heat to heat the water in the tank. In this case the primary energy source heating the water is electricity. The most efficient electric water heaters on the market today yield an EF (energy factor) of 0.95.

The AirTapTM utilizes electricity as a secondary energy to simply operate the equipment that harvests the air energy. Since air energy is the primary source of energy to heat the water the AirTapTM yields a typical EF of 3.0! Under the most ideal conditions of operation for the AirTapTM this EF can range as high as 4.0 while under the least ideal conditions it still provides an EF of 2.3. This means that the AirTapTM can heat water to the same temperature as a conventional resistance element water heater but by using only about one-third of the electricity.

Another advantage of this heat pump technology is that a by-product of this process is cool, dry air. The AirTapTM is designed to capture this cool air and allow you to control where it goes via ducting. In times when you are air conditioning your home you can choose to use this cool air from the AirTapTM to assist your air conditioner thereby reducing your cooling costs. In the heating months you can choose to exhaust the cool air from the AirTapTM to the outside so it does not provide a drain on your home heating system.

So what's my take on the product? I dont know yet. The AirTap costs around $700 dollars plus installation cost. The manufacturers believe that it is very easy to install and maintan the device, and that in the long-run, the savings are as sure as the sun. I will try to get a hold of the AirTap and see if I can do just that so you guys hold on. I will write about installing and using this product very soon.