Heat Pumps Made Simple
Heat Pumps are being used widely now to provide heat to buildings as well as pools in a cost effective manner. A heat pump in essence acts like AC but in reverse. Rather than cooling down your house and getting rid of excess heat via a radiator and external fan unit, a heat pump cools down the external air and pump that heat instead 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 transferred from the ground or air) into your house together with the energy you use to operate the pump in the first place.
This means that if you compare the cost of heat produced by a heat pump with the unit cost of heat provided directly by an electric heater, you can often achieve improvements of 250% or greater. 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 you use actually being provided by the surrounding outside air or geothermally.
There are two main types of heat pump: GSHP or ground source heat pumps which extract geothermal warmth from the ground via a network of underground pipes, and ASHP or air source heat pumps which extract heat from air that is fanned over a heat exchanger with a low noise. Air source heat pumps are usually easy to install and nowadays are very quietquite quiet}. ASHP pumps operate even down to below zero temperatures.
Ground source heat pumps rely on a series of underground pipes which contain a pumped working fluid that enters the pipe cold, having given up its heat to your home, and then warms up to the ground temperature as it flows through the system. 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 operating at slightly higher efficiencies during very cold weather. The underground pipes can be laid vertically via a deep bore hole or horizontally and essentially take out geothermal heat from the ground. This energy is always present at a low level but in conjunction with efficient heat pump technology it can be extracted and used to heat houses or pools highly effectively.
When selecting 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.
Tags: air, cost effective solution, energy, ground source heat, ground source heat pumps, heat, pump, underground pipes
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