In one of your final questions for Section 4, you note that Closed-Loop Heat Pumps “draws the heat from chronically overheated spaces and then distributes it to individual rooms. There is little control or flexibility in this system.” This is NOT however how you reviewed heat pumps where you noted they are “great when buildings have different heating loads.” They are self-contained units that have thermostats and can use cooling towers in the summer and boilers in the winter if needed. So I’m not really clear why you are saying there is no flexibility in the system vs fan coil terminals?
Any help much appreciated @coachjoeyandrada @coachfaithbroussard ?
Yes Closed Loop Systems are good for using heat from other spaces to balance out the heating loads in other spaces. However this does not make them flexible. Closed loop Heat Pumps have one continuous connection to the cooling or heating source and can either Cool or Heat but are not able to do those interchangably. Unlike Fan Coil Units which each have there own connections to the heating and cooling source giving the user the ability to decide which function they would like.
Closed-loop (water-source) heat pump systems share a common water loop maintained by a boiler and cooling tower.
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They redistribute heat between zones — capturing excess heat from warm spaces to serve cooler ones.
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Despite energy efficiency, they cannot provide heating and cooling simultaneously across different zones (the loop operates in one general temperature range).
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Therefore, they are less flexible than systems with independent heating and cooling connections.
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Fan coil units (especially four-pipe) have separate hot and chilled water lines, allowing individual zone control for heating or cooling at the same time.