Air, earth and water – the three most important elements in our life. In future, their significance will be even greater. They are, and very few of us know, immense sources of free renewable thermal energy. Solar radiation from the sun heats the air, earth and water. This energy is the source of all life. It is also a source of energy we can use to heat our homes and buildings. The technology required to extract heat captured in the air, earth and water has been known for more than a hundred years. That technology is called a heat pump. As a consequence of rising energy prices and increased emissions of CO2 the interest in heat pumps has reached record levels. A heat pump, using electricity, is capable to take out this otherwise nonusable heat from either the air, earth or water and convert it into heat suitable for heating our homes and other applications. The whole process is clean and simple and offers the most efficient energetic solution of space heating that is today available.
The fundamental design criteria of all heat pump installations, is that the heat pump output is always higher than its electric power input. The ratio of heating output to electric power input is called the coefficient of performance or COP. A typical seasonal COP value is 3. This figure means the heat pump will use 1 kW of electrical energy to produce 3 kWh of thermal energy. This thermal energy is used to water warming which in turn can be used for heating in buildings and domestic hot water warming. Other heating devices e.g. gas and oil boilers fail to achieve a COP of even 1. Thus when compared to a COP of 3 you can imagine the energy savings a heat pump offers as against more traditional heating systems.
Burning dwindling stocks of coal, oil and gas coupled with environmental issues creates hot topics for conversation. Nations and their governments worldwide agree that we must reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and the emissions of greenhouse gases released when we burn them. The pressing issue is how to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. Heat pumps represent one of the few credible possibilities. When compared with conventional heat sources, e.g. boilers burning solid fuel, natural gas or heating oil, heat pumps save stocks of fossil energy and directly or indirectly reduce the production of harmful emissions. Once you understand the principles and benefits of heat pumps the decision to get one not only makes sense it also guarantees long term economic and environmental advantages.
