can store a lot of heat during Austin’s long summers. The system, they agreed, would have to handle high cooling demand. Given these conditions, an S-Series Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) zoning system from Mitsubishi Electric US Cooling & Heating Division (Mitsubishi Electric) seemed a better choice than the ground-source heat pump, whose electric pumps often undermine the rated geothermal efficiencies. The way building science consultant Kristof Irwin, founder of Positive Energy, described it, “My goal was to avoid the extra cost and complexity associated with a ground-source heat pump and to capture the latent control and reduced power draw benefits associated with VRF.” “As the name implies, VRF equipment has the ability to vary refrigerant flow to the evaporator coil

Join for free to read