The Wilmington morning star., 1947-01-20


The research project is sponsored
by fourteen electric utilities in the
! scutheast through the Southeastern
Electric Exchange. and has al
ready been underway for a year.
Technical reports issued on the
research have stimulated world
wide interest. Dr.. E. N. Kemler,
head of the Engineering Division
of the Institute, reports that in
q%uiries have been received from
Australia, Canada, England, Hol-
land, Italy, Finland, and Palestine
for copies of the reports, of which
more than one thousand have been
requested by universities, manufac-
turers, public utilities, and engi-
neering firms in the United States.
The subject of many articles
over the past fifteen years and
just on the verge CT development
for general use shortly before the
outbreak of the war. the heat
pump, which uses no fuel, is n
of those postwar products that the
householder will be able to buy
during 1947 if ne wants a single
device which will both heat his
home in winter and cool it in sum-
mer. 1t is estimated that about g.
900 units will be built in 1947.
During the 1905 a number of
custom-made heat pumps were in
stalled by a dozen or more electric
utilities in various parts of the
United States to test their practi-
cability and to learn of improve
ments and perfections desirable be-
fore offering the device for general
public use.
Easically. the heat pump is but
an enlarged version of the house
hold refrigerator whose mechanism
is a heat pump which removes heat
from the inside of the refrigerator.
If the process were reversed, heat
would be taken from the outside
and pumped to the inside of the
refrigerator.
The residence : size heat pump
does just this. It is so constructed
that it will either pump heat Out
Of the house or into the house.
Experiments are under way on
three of the most likely sources of
heat for heating with the heat
pump - the air, water, and the
earth. Equipment using the outside
air as a source of heat, already
being manufactured. is particular
ly applicable in sections of the
country where average winter tenn
p%eratures are relatively high, such
as Florida, the Gulf Coast, Cali
%fornia. and a few others.
The earth is a possible source
OF heat that is adaptable to eff
clent heat pump operation through
out the southeast. The earth tenn
peratures at a depth of 30 feet
vary from about 81 degrees F. in
Virginia to 70 degrees on the up
per Gulf Coast. This ground tenn
perature in Southeast North Caro-
lima is about IS degrees F. For
homes there are possibilities of
drilling wells from which earth
heat is extracted without pumping
any water from them, or burying
pipes in the back yard to pick up
heat in the winter and to dissipate
the heat from the house in the
summer.
The purpose of the research
sponsored by electric utility COM
panles of the Southeast through the
Southeastern Electric Exchange is
to determine the type Of equipment
most practical and economical I'M
der varying conditions of climate
/ Il the Southeast and to discover
improvements and refinements
which will not only make it ''fool-
PROOF" but will also help make
possible the mass production of the
heat pump at a price to place it
within reach of the average home
owner and thus add much to his
comfort, convenience, and econo-
my of electric service,