Heat Pumps Made Simple
Heat Pumps are now being used widely to heat buildings and swimming pools in a cost effective way. A heat pump essentially acts like air conditioning but in the opposite direction. Instead of cooling down your house and shedding excess heat to a radiator and external fan unit, a heat pump will cool down the external air and pump that heat directly into your house/pool. The laws of energy conservation mean that you end up with more energy than you pay for because heat energy is pumped from the ground or air) into your house along with the energy you use to operate the pump in the first place.
What this means is that if you compare the cost of heat provided by a heat pump with the unit cost of heat delivered directly by an electric heater, you can usually achieve improvements of 300 percent or even more. For space heating then, heat pumps thus offer a highly cost effective solution which means that your overall energy costs can be cut with much of the heat energy you use actually being provided by the ground or by the outside air.
There are 2 chief types of heat pump: GSHP or ground source heat pumps which extract geothermal warmth from the ground via a network of underground pipes, and air source heat pumps which extract heat from air that is fanned over a heat exchanger with a fan. Air source heat pumps are usually easy to install and currently are quite quiet}. ASHP pumps operate even down to sub-zero temperatures.
GSHP or ground source heat pumps rely on a series of underground pipes which contain a pumped working fluid that enters the pipes cold, having given up its heat to your home or pool, and then warms up to the ground temperature as it circulates. Once warm again it is made to give up its heat via the heat pump compressor which operates just like a fridge.
GSHPs are more difficult to install than air source heat pumps but have the advantage of working at slightly higher efficiencies during cold weather. The underground pipe network can be laid vertically via a deep bore hole or horizontally and essentially extract goe thermal energy from the ground. This energy is always present at a low level but when combined with efficient heat pump technology it can be extracted and used to heat houses or pools highly effectively.
When choosing a heat pump you also need to select a good quality heat pump installer and it pays to use a firm that has a lot of experience and is professionally qualified.
