In this guide, you’ll learn
Understanding Heat Pumps
Heat pumps are devices that absorb heat from outside and then transfer it to your home. Heat pumps are powered by electricity, but use very little power compared to the heat they can output.
There are two main types of heat pumps you can install in your home; ground source heat pumps and air source heat pumps. In this article, we will solely focus on the latter.
The History of Heat Pumps
Although modern-day heat pumps are relatively new the heat pump system and idea have been around for centuries. The first heat pump similar to the ones we know of today was created and built-in 1856 by Austrian engineer, Petter Von Rittinger. Rittinger was originally conducting experiments on the evaporation of salt bring when he stumbled onto the concept of heat pumps. His discovery was then used to dry salt in salt marshes.
The first large scale UK heat pump came in 1945 developed by John Summer. After the war, Summer mashed together some refrigerator parts to create an efficient and effective heat pump.
Although there were many positives to the system it wasn’t adapted UK wide as fossil fuels were still so cheap to use.
Technically How Do Heat Pumps Work?
The basics of what an air source heat pump does are pretty simple, it takes in air from outside extracts the heat and pushes this through your home. How it does this is the technical bit.
Air from outside is brought into the system alongside an antifreeze liquid. This liquid is colder than the ambient temperature, drawing out the heat from the outside air.
A refrigerant (a chemical compound used to carry heat) absorbs the heat, boils and then vaporises. This is taken through the compressor, where you guessed it, the steam is compressed, further raising the temperature.
This hot steam is then passed through the heating system, heating your radiators, water and underfloor heating.
To be able to extract heat again, the refrigerant must be cooled. The steam is then passed through to the expansion valve, the reduces the pressure, causing the temperature to drop.
And so the cycle continues.
The history of heat pumps is more technical than the actual heat pump itself!
However, without this, we’d be burning through even more fossil fuels than we already are. If you’re interested in installing heat pumps in your home talk to the Green Energy 4 All team today.