What are heat pump systems and why they are not the answer for the UK public
With the recent extremes of weather this winter helping people to forget that temperatures in the first few months of the summer were as high as have been recorded for years, the realization is beginning to hit home that the effects of climate change are now being felt. The implications are that in order to preserve resources and keep energy costs for the average UK family under control, something drastic and innovative will need to be found and soon.
One suggestion that has been mooted recently, and is in use in the US, is the heat pump system. Heat pumps come with the capacity to generate heat from one source to another or in a warmer environment to cool warm air by transferring it in another direction.
Till now heat pumps have worked mostly in a cooling mode based very closely on the compressor used to operate an ordinary air conditioner (A/C). The pump contained in the unit draws either cold air from outside and heats it or warm air and cools it. That is the simple principal, and that’s how it operates relatively successfully, and uses little fuel in relation to gas, oil or electrically fired boilers.
The cooling function of these pump system is powered by a reversing valve that utilizes a certain fluid that acts as a refrigerant intermediary to absorb heat as it vaporizes and later release it as it condenses. When in heating mode the outdoor coil reverses itself to act to bring in cold air and heat it.
They question mark around these systems is pretty straightforward.
In order to operate efficiently, the pump needs to work at temperatures of no less than -1° centigrade, and with the temperatures far lower than that being standard in the last few weeks, there is a very strong chance that the pump will be inefficient in times of real need.
While a home heat pump system will undoubtedly reduce energy costs, the cost of installing such a system will be pretty high, as every room will need its own unit. Energy experts predict that it will take up to fifteen years to return the initial investment, although the pumps are expected to last up to 25 years.
Heat pumps systems will not heat water so a boiler will need to be installed in any event.
While there are further arguments for and against switching to a heat pump system, at the moment there seems to be too many against and not enough for.
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