A distributed heating and cooling network to be installed in a building that has a plurality of rooms, such as apartments. The network has a plurality of heat pumps 110 and cold emitters 510, each being coupled to a common liquid loop formed by a flow circuit 121 and a return circuit 122, wherein a cooling operation is performed by the cold emitters extracting heat from a room and transferring it to the liquid loop, whilst the heating operation has the heat pump extract heat from the liquid loop. The heating operation may be used to heat a tank of domestic hot water or a room containing one of the heat pumps. The cold emitters and heat pumps may be activated independently, such that one room may be cooled whilst the other is heated. One of the heat pumps can extract heat from the common liquid loop whilst in the cooling operation and provide it to the domestic hot water supply. A buffer or heat sink module 155 can be used to store excess heat from the common liquid loop. A controller can be used to track electricity use of the system.
展开▼
