electric utilities

electric utilities. The goal was to boost sales to 400,000 units by 2000. This goal was not achieved, partly because utilities were restructured, resulting in withdrawal of their support and marketing. Nevertheless, under this programme sales nearly doubled from 40,000 in 1994 to 80,000 in 1999, accelerating the growth of the industry.
In late 1998, the Federal Energy Management Programme established its ground-coupled heat pump technology initiative. Shipments in the US increased more than ten-fold from 1999 to 2001. It is the most cost-effective component of the overall DOE groundcoupled heat pumps programme that remains active today.
Ground-coupled heat pumps in the US remain possibly the best technology available today for reducing energy consumption from space heating and cooling, and from water heating: “Managing Btu’s with ground-coupled heat pumps - by moving them from room to room, from air conditioners to water heaters, or storing them in the ground for the winter - is a more prudent use of energy than dumping thermal energy into the air as virtually all conventional air conditioners do today