There are few heating and cooling applications that cannot benefit from heat pump technology and in doing so deliver significant energy efficiencies. Heat pumps are available to claim free or waste heat from a number of places.
- Ambient air
- Ground water
- The ground itself
COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS
Commercial applications where unwanted heat would be rejected, Heat pump technology can be used in applications as diverse as space heating or cooling for human comfort in offices, homes and all kinds of residential installations. They can also be found in commercial applications where large quantities of air is available for drying, swimming pools heating and factory dry process production. Most heat pumps are driven by electrical power, natural gas or Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) can power certain systems that drive an internal combustion engine in place of a conventional electric motor.
DOMESTIC APPLICATIONS
Many homes can now benefit from a variety of installations, including ground source, most suitable for certain new-build properties and small split or multi systems applied to existing premises. Air to Air systems use a small room unit to heat or cool the living space by re-circulating room air. Alternatively a number of rooms can be conditioned with a multi-system. Water to Water or Ground to Water systems provide hot water that can be circulated through Fan Coil units, radiators or, preferably, under floor heating pipes to provide space heating. Domestic hot water is also supplied at temperatures up to 55ºC – some Heat Pumps can provide 65ºC.
Air to Air and Air to Water heat pumps are frequently used in office and retails spaces, they are often installed in roof top of the building or sun shades and offer substantially favorable cost comparisons against conventional boiler systems when measured against installation and running costs. Heat pumps are used in many industries, to recover heat or as an integral part of the process. Swimming pools can use heat pumps as the primary source of heat for the water in the pool, showers or to augment an existing fossil fuel system. In enclosed swimming pools, de-humidification is necessary and the heat recovered from the vapour in the air by a dehumidifier is easily returned to heat incoming fresh air or through a heat ex-changer.