It might not feel like it at times, but the earth is a giant battery of heat. Ground source heat pumps extract this heat from the earth and use it to provide heating and hot water. The energy (heat) extracted from the ground is much greater than the energy (electricity) used to power the process which means that ground source heat pumps are the most efficient method of providing year round heating and hot water.
The image below shows how temperature variance reduces with depth. You can see that the temperature range falls rapidly as depth increases and this is the reason that ground source heat pumps are able to provide heating hot water efficiently during the colder months.
Involving a specialist heat pump contractor like us will ensure that the best and most appropriate solution is recommended. Every project is considered on an individual basis and we develop a bespoke heat pump design to produce the most efficient system,and maximise your return on investment.
Below are the key principles and benefits of a ground source heat pump, but we’d love to hear from you and develop a proposal that meets your particular requirements.
Any heat pump system which extracts heat directly from the earth is called a ground source heat pump. A typical ground source heat pump is able to extract four times more energy from the ground than the energy used by the heat pump and this makes ground source heat pumps one of the most efficient solutions for providing heating and hot water.
There are two different methods of extracting heat from the ground:
A ground source heat pump system circulates a solution of water and glycol around a network of pipework which travels underground. The temperature underground is more constant throughout the year than the air temperature at the surface and this means that, during the colder months of the year, the ground temperature is warmer than the surface air temperature.
Heat pump efficiency is a product of the difference between its heat source (the ground) and the heat use (the heating or hot water system). By using the warmth of the earth as the heat source, a ground source heat pump provides heating and hot water very efficiently, and a more efficient heating system is a less expensive one to run.
Ground source heat pumps can provide all your space heating and hot water. They can also provide cheap cooling if you have a suitable distribution system installed.
Historically, heat pumps were not able to achieve high enough temperatures to meet all hot water demands and this meant that they often had to be topped up with a conventional system such as, direct electric or oil. However, modern heat pumps can achieve heating and hot water temperatures of 60℃+ and can provide 100% of your heating and hot water.
It has also been common for heat pump systems to only be recommended with underfloor heating. However, modern heat pumps can run efficiently with conventional radiators at efficiencies that make them much less expensive to run that oil or gas heating. In addition, there are also highly efficient radiators, such as Jaga Strada, which can be used with heat pumps and actually offer better efficiency than underfloor heating.
A commercial or large-scale ground source heat pump system will typically follow this process:
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