Heat pumps how do they work

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Office Equipment Computers. As of October it had achieved only about 80, installations. Part of the challenge will be getting enough skilled people to fit them.

On the flip side, the company says people can be trained quickly to install them. The status quo. The UK government agreed, and in a Heat and Buildings Strategy on 19 October , said it start shifting environmental and social levies off electricity bills and on to gas bills over the next decade. A final decision on how that will work is due in One big risk is badly installed hardware tarnishing the image of heat pumps.

Finally, the UK is going to need more clean electricity generation. Demand has been falling in recent years due to efficiency measures, but the CCC projects heat pumps combined with electric cars will drive it back up again. Energy networks will cope in the short term. Why heat pumps?

Take our expert-led online sustainability course to find out how green living can help tackle climate change. Articles Videos. For larger scale installations, you might like to opt for an absorption heat pump which works in the same way as an air source one but uses ammonia instead of a refrigerant. These are more often found in industrial installations but recent developments have seen them being utilised for big commercial and domestic properties.

The other major component of any heat pump is the ducting that transfers the heat from the main source to the rooms in the house. The ducting is often the problem when it comes to retrofitting a house as it can be invasive and expensive to install.

For this reasons, some domestic properties go for mini-split heat pumps that are less problematic to install. One of the newer initiatives in heat pump technology is the development of thermodynamic panels that transfer both the heat from air and solar radiation to warm up your water and rooms.

These can generally be fitted on the side of a house but can also be found on the roof, looking a lot like solar panels. There are basic examples of the two main types of heat pump: air source heat pump and ground source heat pump. Whilst they are not technically renewable technologies because they depend on a little electricity from the mains, heat pumps are a highly efficient way of keeping your house or office building warm.

This marvel of modern technology takes heat from the air outside your home and pumps it inside through refrigerant-filled coils, not too different from what's on the back of your fridge.

The air source variety is pretty basic, and you'll find two fans, the refrigerator coils, a reversing valve and a compressor inside to make it work. This system is more commonly known as an air-air heat pump, because it takes heat from outdoor air and transfers it to indoor air ducts. With the right kind of modifications, air-source systems can also work with other types of indoor heating systems.

The key to allowing the air-air heat pump to also cool is the reversing valve. This versatile part reverses the flow of the refrigerant, so that the system begins to operate in the opposite direction.

So instead of pumping heat inside your home, the heat pump releases it, just like your air conditioner does. When the refrigerant is reversed it absorbs heat on the indoor side of the unit and flows to the outside.

It's here that the heat is released, allowing the refrigerant to cool down again and flow back inside to pick up more heat. This process repeats itself until you're nice and cool. By now, you've learned that air-source heat pumps use an outdoor fan to bring air over refrigerant-filled coils. Two sets of these coils transfer this heat indoors, where it's then blown away from the coils by a second fan, and distributed through your home as cool goodness.

Some air-source heat pump systems consist of a single packaged unit containing both sets of coils in one box. This box is then installed on the roof of a building with the ductwork extending through the wall.

You'll see a lot of larger systems for commercial buildings installed in this way. Home heat pumps are usually split systems with an outdoor and an indoor component installed through the wall.

Depending on the type of system, there may be one or more indoor components to distribute heat. Ground-source heat pumps are a little different. They absorb heat from the ground or an underground body of water and transfer it indoors, or vice versa. The most common type of ground-source heat pump transfers heat directly from the ground by absorbing it through buried pipes filled with water or a refrigerant. These liquid-pumping pipes can be either closed-loop or open-loop systems, and they operate pretty much exactly how they sound.

In a closed-loop system, the same refrigerant or water circulates through the pipes repeatedly. In an open-loop system, water is pumped out of the underground water source, like a well or a man-made lake. From there, the heat is extracted from the water, and that water returns to the well or surface lake. More water is then pumped from the well to extract more heat in a continuous open loop. If that's not enough to blow your mind, consider the absorption heat pump -- air-source pumps that are powered by natural gas, solar power , propane or geothermal-heated water, rather than by electricity.

Absorption pumps can be used for large-scale applications, but are now available for homes on the larger side. The main difference between a standard air-source heat pump and an absorption pump is that instead of compressing a refrigerant, an absorption pump absorbs ammonia into water, and then a low-power pump pressurizes it. The heat source then boils the ammonia out of the water, and the process starts all over again.

When you go to check out an absorption heat pump, it helps to know how they're rated. Manufacturers rate them using a measurement called a coefficient of performance COP , which sounds pretty complicated. All you need to know is to look for a COP above 1. And don't worry, we'll discuss ratings for standard heat pumps a little later. Air-source, ground-source and absorption heat pumps are the most common kinds of heat pumps, but they won't work in every situation.

Read on to learn about special kinds of heat pumps. If your home doesn't have air ducts to distribute heat, don't fear. You could potentially use a special kind of heat pump called a mini-split heat pump. The cutest of all heat pumps, it connects an outdoor air-source unit to multiple indoor units.

These indoor units connect to water heat or space heaters. These ductless mini-split systems are useful for retrofitting a home with a heat pump system because their locations outside and inside the home are flexible.

Another plus is that the installation only requires a 3-inch 7. They're also versatile. The indoor air handlers can be installed in walls, ceilings or on the floor, and they're small to boot. And who can forget the reverse cycle chiller RCC heat pump? Instead of heating and cooling air, this bad boy heats and cools water, and can operate efficiently in below freezing temperatures.