IMELS National Heat Pumps Project

The National Heat Pump Project was approved in December 2016 by the steering committee related to the technical agreement between the Italian Ministry of Environment Land and Sea (IMELS) and the Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation (LCEC). The current project is the first phase of a longer term commitment.

The project aims at introducing heat-pumps for space heating and cooling and for the production of hot water in the domestic and tertiary sectors. This objective will be achieved through ensuring the quality of products in the market by introducing standards, regulations, and testing infrastructure, through ensuring quality in design and installation through the development of guidelines and the implementation of capacity building activities. The project will also include demonstrating the economic and environmental advantage of the technology through pilot applications.

The project is split into two components as per the following:

Component 1: Establishment of a national test laboratory for quality insurance and certification of domestic hot water production, air conditioners and heat pump products.

• Design and construction of a national test laboratory for vapor compression system used for: domestic hot water production, air conditioners and heat pump.
• Creation of national standards for products testing employed for domestic hot water production, air conditioning and space heating based on vapor compression technologies.
• Transfer know how on domestic hot water, air conditioning and heat pump lab testing according to the procedures defined in the previous task and dissemination to the main stakeholders.

Component 2: Establishment of a financial mechanism and a monitoring scheme for highly efficient domestic hot water, air conditioners and space heating appliances based on vapor compression technology.

• Provision of financial incentives for the realization of domestic hot water, air conditioning/heat pump installations in buildings.
• Design and realize an energy performance monitoring program for domestic hot water appliances, air conditioners and heat pumps under real operation conditions.
• Dissemination activities in Lebanon, Italy and EU.

The project and its targeted technology offer a sustainable alternative for domestic hot water production in high-rise buildings, especially where solar water heaters could not be installed. It also offers space heating and cooling that has better efficiency and higher coefficient of performance.

Currently, the national standards are being studied and adopted consecutively by LIBNOR committee TC3018. Multiple workshops have been completed in order to improve awareness of the stakeholders and to enhance the technology know-how in the Lebanese market.

The Grant Component

LCEC in cooperation with IMELS is offering a grant consisting of a sum of money that is paid to the beneficiaries who install an Italian heat pump. In addition to the grant, a monitoring system will be installed on the heat pump.

This monitoring system is completely financed by LCEC and IMELS in order to collect data for the national feasibility study of the heat pump project. The data will be collected on an online platform developed in cooperation with Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI) which consists of multiple parameters that are being measured and calculated based on the monitoring system’s output.

In parallel with the grant, the end user who wishes to install a heat pump, can opt to finance the rest of the system with a NEEREA loan by filling the air to water heat pump guidelines that was developed in coordination with POLIMI in order to make it easier for the applicant to get financing through banks.

In order to purchase the monitoring systems, LCEC launched an RFP for the supply of monitoring systems with specific characteristics that should be used in the projects and that are compatible with the online monitoring platform.

In July 2020, the document “Guidelines for Design and Installation of Heat Pumps in Lebanese Buildings” was published in order to spread awareness on the right ways of installation of heat pumps within the technical community and to inform the end users on the benefits and best practices of the heat pumps field.

Presently, LCEC is developing 2 RFPs, one for consultancy services for the supervision, evaluation and technical support in the National Heat Pumps Project, and the second is a request for proposal to design a national laboratory for vapor compression systems. These bids will be launched soon and will be followed by a bid for the building of the designed laboratory.