The cold has returned. And she has done it hard. When we thought we were going to experience the hottest winter in history, Squalls Gerard and Fien have put the peninsula in check and we have seen a notable drop in temperatures in almost all cities. It also comes at a time when energy prices continue to skyrocket: the OCU estimates that each home spends on heating at 750 euros per year.
And of course, families wonder how to save on air conditioning their homes. The answer may be the following: aerothermal energy. Or better: aerothermal subsidized by the state.
What is aerothermal energy? It is a system that allows the use of thermal energy from the air to produce both air conditioning and heating or hot water. I eat? Thanks to the exchange of heat between two systems: our home and the outside.
When we want to cool our house we will have to expel heat to the outside. When we want to heat our house we will have to absorb heat from the outside by expelling cold air. These exchanges are carried out through a fluid capable of passing into liquid and gaseous states. releasing or absorbing heat in phase change.
How is it installed at home? All these processes are carried out inside a system called a “heat pump”, which is the device that will allow us to heat or cool depending on the direction in which the fluid works. That is why we will have to have a unit inside the house and another outside in charge of expelling hot or cold air.
Among the most common systems, underfloor heating stands out, which provides an ideal temperature distribution since the ducts are installed under the floor and allows the room to be heated by passing the water through. However, installation is more expensive and requires more work. Another system is low-temperature radiators: they are like conventional radiators but more efficient since they work at a lower temperature. In this case the installation is easier, faster and cheaper.
Expensive or cheap? The good news is that it only consumes electrical energy to run the compressor motor: for every kWh it uses, it generates between 3 and 4 kWh of heat energy. That’s why it’s so efficient. What can pull back more than one is the initial cost, although it is true that in the long run it is recovered with the subsequent energy savings. In addition, there are a series of Government subsidies to carry out these thermal installations with aerothermal energy at a residential level.
Government aid. They are promoted through the Spanish Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan and regulated in the Royal Decree 477/2021. The objective is to achieve “decarbonisation, investing in green infrastructures”. The basic aid varies from €500/kW to a maximum of 3,000 euros per home in the residential sector and from €650/kW to 3,900 euros for publicly owned homes and the third sector.
On the other hand, there is additional help to adapt the air conditioning and hydraulic circuits. If it is underfloor heating: €600/kW, with a limit of €3,600 per home. If they are low-temperature radiators or fan coils: €550/kW, with a limit of €1,830 per home. Both grants can be combined, so the maximum grant would be up to €6,500 in the case of installing a heat pump and underfloor heating.
How to request them? They can be ordered until December 31, 2023 at the IDEA website where you will find access to the portals from which the aid of each Autonomous Community is managed. Andalusia, Catalonia, Madrid, Valencia and the Basque Country are the five with the largest budget. Other aid can also be requested for solar thermal, biomass, geothermal, hydrothermal technology installations for air conditioning and/or domestic hot water.
Image: Unsplash