- Octopus Energy has revealed the Cosy cooler add-on
- It's a unit that works with the Cosy heat pump to transform your central heating system into air conditioning
- A unit cools one room and costs £500, with multiple units needing a higher-tier Cosy heat pump — trials are underway now
Octopus Energy has developed an add-on for its heat pumps which means that central heating can be transformed into an air-con system for the increasingly hot British summers.
The invention is called the Cosy cooler — following the same branding as the Cosy heat pump — and it's just been launched, with trials having begun in UK homes (and offices), and more testers being sought via Octopus' official form.
The Cosy cooler is the size of a "tall kitchen bin" at 72cm tall, with a width of 43cm, and depth of 35cm. It simply connects to the existing central heating radiator pipework (and heat pump), taking about three hours to fit (with no "major" building work needed, Octopus assures us).
The system chills the water going through the radiators, and it also takes in warm air from indoors, cooling it using a heat exchanger, then circulating that chilled air back out into the room. So there's a double whammy of cooling here, and one unit can cool a single room, or you can run two to three units in different rooms (although you'll need a higher-tier Cosy heat pump to run multiple Cosy coolers).
Okay, so what's the damage for staying cool next summer? Octopus expects to sell these cooling units for £500 to £600, which is a lot less than a full air-con system, of course (which run from £2,000 upwards, as the energy provider notes).
Greg Jackson, who is CEO and founder of Octopus, commented: "Sadly, British homes need to be ready for freezing winters and increasingly hot summers." He added that: "The Boiler Upgrade Scheme has helped give the industry the confidence to invest, innovate and drive costs down — and Cosy cooler is the latest result of Octopus ingenuity."
Octopus recently launched plug-in solar kits, too, and they've sold out twice now, but more kits are on the way, we're told. That's another piece of the puzzle that could help keep your heating (or cooling) costs down.
Cosily chilled
This is a clever idea and one that will doubtless grab the attention of anyone who suffered in the heat of the past summer in the UK (and that's a lot of people, no doubt).
The climate in this country seems to be shifting radically, and the heat of the last summer led to portable air-con units and fans selling out in many cases, with prices of the devices which were left in stock spiraling rapidly upwards.
There's probably going to be a lot of interest in these Cosy cooler units, seeing as they provide what sounds like a much more comprehensive cooling system than what you'll get for £500 or so in the way of a portable air-con device.
Octopus is aiming to sell these Cosy coolers to customers next summer, but for now, as mentioned, what's happening is that you can apply for a trial. If you want to do that, head to the official page here, but obviously bear in mind that you need to be running the Cosy heat pump. This isn't a standalone product, rather it works off the existing heat pump (and note that it's a prototype currently).
If you want more than one cooling unit — so you want to cover perhaps your bedroom as well as your living room — then it sounds like you'll need one of the beefier Cosy heat pumps, too (they come in three flavors: Cosy 6, 9 and 12).