Choose a Heat Pump, The Environmentally Friendly Option To Heating Your Home
Author: Harwood E Woodpecker
In this environmentally friendly world that we all live in certain steps
have to be taken to ensure that there is still a world for people to inhabit
in the future. People all over the world are looking at ways to help save
energy and the world's resources.
Household heating is a major consumer of energy so whatever can be developed
to reduce the effect on the environment has got to be a step in the right
direction.
By extracting heat from the ground or air (geothermal energy) and then compressing
it to raise the temperature significantly, the heat generated can then be
used for water or space heating.
Since there is quite a lot of heat energy in even very cold materials, heat
pumps can use sources that appear to be very unpromising. For example, if
the temperature of the air is 5 degrees C, that might appear to be too cold
to extract any heat.
In reality 5 degrees C is pretty hot compared to absolute zero (-273 degrees
C) and therefore an air source heat pump can produce useable heat all year
round. Think of your deep freeze. Heat continues to be extracted from that
area even though it's well below freezing.
Heat pumps can use air, water and, increasingly commonly, the ground below
your feet as a source of energy. Ground water is a particularly useful source
of heat since it rarely gets much colder than 7 degrees C.
Unlike more conventional heating or air conditioning, heat pumps minimise
pollution and fuel use.
By utilising entirely free and renewable geothermal sources of energy they
are very low carbon and very economic to run. During hotter summer months
the latest models can even be run in reverse to passively extract heat from
inside a home and 'dump it' into the ground. This method of cooling is one
of the lowest carbon and lowest energy approaches available.
For every unit of electrical power needed to extract the heat, up to six
units of heat can be obtained. That's right, heat pumps can be up to 600
per cent efficient.
It's like buying a low-energy light bulb with an output rating of I00 watts
but with an energy usage of only 20 watts. Remember, we spend very little
on electricity for light bulbs in our homes compared to running our heating
and hot water systems - so the savings are much greater.
The attraction of running a heating system this efficiently is obvious.
It saves money and makes a real contribution towards a low or even zero
carbon building and towards reducing the devastating impact of climate change.
It's worth recalling how, by 2016, every new home in the UK will need to
be rated 'zero carbon'. Given that the law in this area is getting tougher
all the time and the 2016 date is now fixed, new business opportunities
are growing rapidly.
More and more heat pumps will be installed in the coming years which can
only be good news for the environment. Pioneering companies have already
gotten to grips with issues around the ground works required and enterprising
trades people are discovering how they can become part of the future of
our industry.
The next generation of heat pump technology that is even easier to install,
and operate further reduces running costs and improves the already impressive
efficiency which will make the models of the future even more appealing
to the mass market.
These will offer air, water and ground source heat pumps to suit all household
heating needs, helping to reduce the cost of heating water for your bath
as well as heating the whole house during the colder months.
In addition to being powerful systems in their own right the heat pumps
of the future even come ready to connect to a solar heating system, complete
with flat-panel collector array and solar cylinder, providing an integration
of solar energy and heat pump for domestic hot water and central heating.
Heat pumps will make a huge difference to the way we heat our homes as well
as making a big difference, for the better on the environment.
About the Author:
You may not always agree with my writings but I hope to inform.
Harwood E Woodpecker