Applying power electronics to residential HVAC-the issues

The author outlines several of the market and application issues bearing on the economics of residential variable speed air conditioners and heat pumps. Variable capacity systems develop only enough capacity to exactly match the heat gain or loss in the conditioned space. The intention is to provoke new creative technical solutions and to invoke new marketing strategies that will develop the potential of air conditioning products containing power electronics to enable them to penetrate the heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) market, competing successfully against conventional systems. An overview is given of the nature of the US HVAC market, the products that serve it, and the value of variable capacity