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The geothermal heat pump works the same way as a fridge. A fridge extracts heat from the food and air inside the fridge and dumps this heat (at a higher temperature) onto a radiator at the back of the fridge.
Heat pumps extract heat from a relatively low temperature area (the ground outside your building or the air outside) via a collector. There is a compressor within the heat pump, which raises the temperature of the extracted heat.
Essentially, the heat pump takes a large volume of low temperature heat and converts it to a smaller volume of higher temperature heat. This higher temperature is used for radiators (Aluminium or fan coil) or underfloor heating.
Installation
Because ground source heat pumps draw their energy from the ground they usually require a large collector area, this may not always be available, in this case an air source heat pump might be more suitable. Air source can provide significant installation cost benefits over ground source systems.
How noisy are heat pumps?
Heat pumps are generally very quiet, noise levels equivalent to that of a fridge. We would always recommend you listen to one before you purchase.
What is the lifespan of a heat pump?
Most heat pumps would have a lifespan of 20 years or more.
What are the environmental aspects to a heat pump?
Heat pumps are very environmentally friendly, they have no emissions and up to 80% of the energy is renewable. Depending on your electric source this could be up to 100%.
Will it heat a building on the coldest winter day?
Yes it will. Thousands of these systems have been installed for many years in some of the most northern parts of Scandinavia where the winters are very hard and long. The key is the design and specification process so the system provides enough energy for the application.
Will it provide enough hot water for baths showers & domestic hot water?
With the correct design and equipment, all domestic hot water requirements would be provided by the air source or ground source heat pump throughout the year. Heat pumps produce water at a lower temperature than boiler systems. Instead of water that may be scalding water produced is hot enough for all normal domestic requirements.
You will notice that you do not have to add as much cold water to your baths and showers. The aim is to save money and energy with either an air source or ground source system. There is no point in taking water to temperatures that can't be used anyway (above 55°C).
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