Installing Heat Pumps for a Better Living Space

It is always so nice to feel warm and cosy when it is chilling cold outside. The heating and cooling systems (HVAC) can instantly help in changing the temperature and make us comfortable at the place.

Does it ever make you wonder the working of HVAC?

The possibility of keeping you warm in the winters and cool in the summers is because of the heat pumps that pump warmth from one place to another. Heat Pumps are attached to the HVAC system and rather have very simple functionality. They take heat from the colder spaces and release it into a warmer one.

They are usually attached to radiators, underfloor heating systems, and warm air convectors to maintain a desirable temperature in both residential and commercial areas. They have amazing climate control properties that can be reversed when one needs to cool the space.

With a reverse functionality of a refrigerator, an air source heat pump can absorb heat from the outdoors and transfer this heat energy in the indoors of your house. Moreover, Electric Heat Pumps are a great source of generating heat and their use in homes and offices has no harm on the environment. Since they run on electricity, they do not combust fuel and offer a fantastic way to lower the carbon footprint. However, they can be less efficient in temperature below -15 C, they are incredibly capable of managing room temperatures and offering a warm and cosy space in your indoors.

Types of Heat Pumps:

If you want to know more about Heat Pumps, let us start by introducing you to all types that are found:

1. Air Source Heat Pumps

The air source heat pump is best for a moderate and settled climate like in the UK. It can simply be fitted i n the side of the building wall. The fan extracts the outside air and transfers heat by compression of the coils made up of conductive copper tubing.

 

An Air Source heat pumps is a much more efficient way to heat up the space by significantly saving on energy bills.

2. Ground Source Heat Pumps

Apart from the outside air, there are other means to draw exergy, one of the major being the ground and water. Did you know, we can extract the solar energy stored in ground and water to run ground source heat pumps. They use the heat pipes that are laid into the soil and are also called Geothermal heat pumps. Also, due to a constant ground temperature, they have higher energy efficiency as compared to the air source heat pumps.

 

3 Types of Ground Source Heat Pumps:

• A horizontal array can be placed under the surface of your garden.
• A vertical heat pump can be placed several metres into the ground through a bore hole.
• Rather than the ground this kind of pump can use a localised water source to draw the heat from.

3. Hybrid Heat Pumps

When a heat pump is used in combination of other energy source like gas boiler it generates a higher level of efficiency. These pumps are called Hybrid Pumps and are perfect for heat generation in extremely cold climates as there is no need to change radiators after you install this heat pumps in your space.

Another hybrid configuration is to have a mix of ground and air source heat pumps that operate at full efficiency at different times of the day or even throughout the year. So when the air is colder outside, it draws on the ground source heat pump energy and when the air is warmer it has a reverse operation.

4. Ductless Mini-Split Heat Pumps

The Ductless Mini split is best when the area of heating is not large enough as a building. These ductless mini split heat pumps do not require duct to pass heat into rooms and are quite similar to the ordinary air source heat pumps operating in a single room.

 

Moreover, their small size also becomes a great advantage to easily install this heat pump.

5. Absorption Heat Pumps

The Absorption heat pump uses the solar-heated water or the geothermal heated water to provide heat rather than the electricity. They are also referred as the gas-fired heat pumps and are mostly used in industrial processes in larger firms.

How does a basic Air Source heat pump work?

The Air Source Heat pumps are the most common heat pumps found in the UK. This is solely due to the moderate climate of the UK that is not too cold and not too hot. The Air Source heat pump is best to go for in areas that have a moderate climate.

In simpler words, a heat pump is a device that transfers energy from one place to another.

Since, heat moves from higher to lower temperature, so the heat pump follows a reverse functionality using simple science which pushes outside air, warms it up and then enters your living space.

The Air Source Heat Pump has a refrigerant with a system of coils over which an impeller or fan is used to draw air from the outside. The refrigerant coil has a liquid that absorbs all the heat and evaporates. By going through the compressor this gas then changes temperature drastically.

The coil then moves towards some inner coils where the heat is released. The refrigerant meanwhile flows back outside where it picks up more heat and the process starts again. The useful heat produced is pumped into air ducts and is spread to various locations around the building or can be used to heat water that feeds into radiators.

Get in touch with Renewable Energy Hub to install efficient and cost effective Heat Pumps in your residential and commercial areas. Contact our expert team to learn more about the best heat pumps suitable for your space.