Yes, both air source heat pumps and ground source heat pumps work with most household radiators.
In this article, we’ll answer all your radiator and heat pump questions and concerns. If you have any unanswered questions by the end of this article, contact the Green Energy 4 All team, and we’ll be happy to help!
The recent government announcement about the phasing out of gas boilers, named The Gas Boiler Ban, starts as of 2025 when newly built homes will be banned from installing gas boilers.
This has many homeowners thinking about alternative renewable methods to heat their homes.
One of the most popular methods on the market today is heat pumps.
What are Heat Pumps?
Heat pumps use thermal energy from either the air or the ground to transfer heat around your home. There are 2 types; air source heat pumps and ground source heat pumps.
Both systems are highly efficient as electricity usage is limited compared to the outputted heat.
Air source heat pumps pull in heat from the air and transfer the heated fluid to your home. Whereas ground source is buried underground and absorbs the heat from the soil.
Will My Existing Radiators Work with a Heat Pump?
Both air source and ground source heat pumps will work with most radiators. However, radiators that are paired with heat pumps need to be larger compared to radiators that will be connected to conventional boilers.
The technical explanation for this is when using a conventional gas boiler, the temperature of the water flowing through the pipes is usually around 65 - 70°C.
Heat pumps were created to be an efficient alternative. They are designed to run at lower flow temperatures, typically between 35 - 45 degrees°C. The water running through heat pumps doesn’t need to be heated as high to warm your home sufficiently.
If you’re reading this article, it’s more than likely that when your radiators were fitted, they were installed to be connected to a conventional boiler, resulting in a high flow temperature. Because of the high temperature means, the radiators don’t have to be as big.
It’s possible that in some cases, you would need to upgrade to bigger radiators to ensure there is enough surface area from the low flow temperature to heat the room.
Other Things to Consider When Combining Heat Pumps and Radiators
As well as radiator size, it’s important to consider the size of the piping that will connect the heat pump system to the radiators.
Pipe size is important because a smaller pipe size limits the amount of water flowing through. This causes heat to be lost before even reaching the radiators.
Before you rule out heat pumps for being a bit of a hassle, the size of the pipes needed really depends on the location of the heating system components. This can be worked out through a heat loss calculation survey.
But don’t worry, there is a way to install heat pumps even if your home has low diameter sized pipes. You can install a buffer tank at an additional cost.
A buffer tank is essentially a volume of water that the heat pump will warm up before being pumped around the heating system. This helps to reduce the cycling of water around the heat pump system.
On average, a buffer tank will need to hold approximately 15 litres per 1kW of heat pump capacity.
If you are serious about upgrading your home and installing heat pumps, various options could suit you and your home. If you need more guidance or you have any questions speak to one of our heat pump experts today.