Renewable Energy News

Ground Source Heat Pumps

There are many applications for heat pumps, this article is concerned with ground source (geothermal) heat pumps for heating homes and commercial premises.
The primary difference between a ground source heat pump and a conventional boiler is that a conventional boiler is usually designed to heat the property between certain hours. It achieves this by outputting an enormous amount of heat over a short space in time. The property heats up, the boiler switches off and the house goes cold again.

A ground source heat pump works differently to this. The ground source heat pumps does not like producing very hot water. A conventional boiler might out put water to your radiators at a temperature in excess of 70 degrees C. A heat pumps can achieve this but it would be inefficient in doing so.

Therefore the style of heating needs to be changed to accommodate lower temperature heat output.

In general this means using underfloor heating (running at a low temperature, perhaps 38 degrees C) or radiators that are oversized so that they can run at a lower temperature than normal (perhaps 50-55 degrees C).

When the output temperature of the system is lowered it is vital that this heat is retained as the time taken to heat the whole building will increase

The key to a good ground source heat pump installation is insulation. Great insulation will benefit any home, what ever the type of heat system. However, due to the drip feed effect of heating a building more slowly with a heat pump it is even more important that the building retains this heat.

Sadly this means that ground source heat pumps tend not to be the best solution for heating old drafty homes. Having said this barn conversion are often ideal candidates as during the renovation is an ideal time to improve the insulation in the building.

Labels: Heat-Pumps