ASHP and GSHP Heat Pumps Made Simple
Heat Pumps are being used extensively to heat buildings as well as pools in a low cost manner. A heat pump essentially behaves like air conditioning but in reverse. Instead of cooling down your house and shedding excess heat via a radiator and external fan unit, a heat pump cools down the external air and pump that heat instead into your swimming pool or house. The laws of energy conservation mean that you end up with more energy than you pay for because heat energy is pumped from the air (or ground) into your house together with the energy you use to operate the system 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 delivered by a standard electric heater, you can usually get improvements of 250% or even more. For space heating then, heat pumps offer a cost effective solution which means that your overall energy costs can be reduced with much of the heat you use actually being provided by the ground or by the outside air.
There are two chief types of heat pump: ground source heat pumps which extract geothermal warmth from the ground via an array of underground pipes, and air source heat pumps which extract heat from air that is fanned over a heat exchanger with a low noise. ASHP pumps are usually easy to install and nowadays are quite quiet}. They operate even down to below zero temperatures.
Ground source heat pumps rely on a series of underground pipes which contain a pumped fluid that enters the pipes cold, having given up its heat to your home, and then warms up to the ground temperature as it circulates. Once warm again it enters the heat pump and gives off its heat again to repeat the cycle.
Ground source heat pumps are less easy to install than air source heat pumps but have the advantage of working 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 goe thermal energy 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 choosing a heat pump you also need to select a good quality heat pump installer and it pays to use a firm that is professional qualified.
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