Good news for Romanians who want to reduce their electricity bill. President Klaus Iohannis has passed a law reducing VAT from 19% to 5% for heat pumps, photovoltaic panels and solar thermal panels. The aim of the new law is to reduce electricity consumption and consumers' dependence on the volatility of the electricity market.
How efficient are heat pumps
The air/air heat pump extracts heat from the outside air using an outdoor unit. In the outer unit is the compressor, evaporator and expansion valve. Even when it freezes outside, enough heat can be generated due to the refrigerant flowing through a pipe from the outer unit to the inner unit.
In the indoor unit is the condenser, so the refrigerant pipe forms a closed circuit, and the heat pump converts the energy from the outside air into heat for heating the premises and water.
Air/air heat pumps are so efficient that they operate in optimal parameters even at -20 degrees Celsius, being tested and in service in cold climates.
During the summer, the system works in reverse. And in this case, the efficiency of the heat pump system is a high one, operating optimally up to temperatures of 55 degrees Celsius in the shade.
According to the manufacturers, the coefficient of performance of an air-to-air heat pump is 5.05. This means that 1 kw of current converts into up to 4 kw of heat energy depending on the air temperature.
As a comparison, in the optimal case, a condensing gas boiler with an average efficiency of 98%, consumes 10 W of gas to produce 9.8 W of thermal.
