In recent months there has been considerable interest in increasing the use of heat pumps as part of the countries' decarbonisation strategy. Much of this interest has been focused on the residential sector but many public and private sector organisations could also benefit from this technology. However, in many cases the outputs available from existing heat pumps were too low to provide a viable cost/benefit ratio.

Now, Hoval has addressed this issue with the launch of the Belaria fit range of air/water heat pumps – for use in standalone configuration, in a cascade of up to 16 units or as part of a hybrid system. They can also be retrofitted to existing heating systems. In all cases, these new units deliver efficient heating, cooling and domestic hot water (DHW) production at the same time.

In addition to the clear environmental advantage, hybrid systems offer:

• Increased efficiency, as the advantages of the energy sources in terms of output and temperature level can be used selectively.
• Increased working safety due to redundancy of heat generators and reduced dependence on a specific energy source.
• Lower investment costs for the additional heat generators.