3. Residential and commercial applications

When installing a heat pump (whether reversible or not, or a heat and cooling pump), you should first try to reduce energy needs. To do this, you must first consider, before purchasing the energy system, the possibility of reducing thermal loads by improving the building envelope: designing the structure to utilize natural ventilation in the summer, improving insulation to reduce heating needs in the winter (while ensuring that this does not negatively impact comfort during the transitional seasons and summer), and using appropriate heating emitters (in the case of a renovation involving a switch from a boiler to a heat pump, replacing the emitters should be considered).

Energy requirements vary throughout the year. For example: in winter, heating demand may be the only requirement; in summer, cooling demand dominates, and heating is used for domestic hot water;...