Heat Pumps

Heat Pumps and its Forms

We have learnt to adapt our environment according to our basic needs of living. Gone are the days, when shivering and trembling poor souls would seek refuge in the animal skins to keep themselves immune from the biting winds in winter. Moreover, no need to keep coughing and shedding the tears, due to the smoke screen produced by the burnt woods to keep the rooms warm, nor you should burry yourselves under the heavy loads of the woollen sweaters and the coats, while at home or in the office. Thanks to the technological development of the modern times, we have the heat pumps, which condition the air for us to soothe us in the winters. The real gift is there for the miserable souls, who are just sick of seeing the heavy bills of electricity, especially in the winters, which owe their most to the room heaters, which consume a lot of energy. Nor you should ail yourself and your budget by expending separately on the air conditioners during the scorching heats and on room heaters in deadly winters. Fortunate are we really, as we have the heat pumps.

A heat pump is a machine or device that conditions the temperature of a given place normally to the warmer side, with the movement or shift of heat from the other place. This process is normally mechanical and involves different techniques and material for the desired aim of warming the environment. The place from where the heat is moved is generally known as ‘the source‘. While the place to which generally heat is shifted, is known as the ‘sink’ or ‘the heat sink’. The most common examples of the heat pumps are the air conditioners of today, which though in the burning summers, keep your ambiance cool, yet can function in the reverse direction during the winters to keep the environment of your home warm. In most of the cases, the heat pump technology can move heat from the low temperature area, i.e. heat source to a higher temperature heat area, i.e. the heat sink.

Generally, the heat pumps get heat from the outside or the inside air. In some cases, these may get the heat from the ground water or the soil. Amongst the other possible heat sources, are water, which may include all types, i.e. from the streams or the other water bodies and even the domestic waste water can also be used from extracting heat. These are liked a lot by the users due to two aspects, i.e. efficiency and economy. But unfortunately, these may not work very efficiently in the extreme cold climates, as in most of the cases, the heat pumps tend to draw or extract heat from the outer or natural sources, which are themselves extreme cold in the areas, where temperature generally falls below -5 C . Amongst various types of heat pumps are air source heat pumps, which extract heat from the outside air. Its sub types are air-air heat pumps and air-water heat pumps. The former transfers the warm air from the outside environment to the inside environment, where as the latter transfers the heat from the air into the water.

Geothermal heat pumps are another type. As evident from the name, they get heat from the ground sources. Its sub type is geothermal–air heat pump; which transfers the heat to the inside air. The second sub type is the ground–air heat pump; which tends to use the ground as a heat source. The next is rock–air heat pump which uses the rocks as the heat source. Another is water–air heat pump, for whom body of water serves as a heat source. Next comes geothermal–water heat pump, which transfers heat to a tank of water. Another type is water–water heat pump. It uses the body of water as a source of heat. In short, heat pumps are one of the essentials of a cosy office or home environment.

Heat pump is a device that offers an alternative to furnaces and air conditioners in moderated climate areas as it moves, not generates, heat from one body to another body using electricity. Its common applications can be viewed in refrigerators, freezers and air conditioners. According to second law of thermodynamics heat can not flow from a colder body to a hotter body until some external work is applied to it. Conversely to the working of heat engine where work is done when energy flows from a hot source to cold sink, a heat pump requires thermal energy to move heat from a cold source to a hot sink.

During the heating season heat pumps move heat from the cool outdoors into your warm house, whereas during the cold season it works in a reverse fashion by making the heat moves from your cool homes into the outdoors.

Heat pumps draw heat from the air or from the ground, where the heat from air can be of indoor and outdoor and heat from ground can be drawn from groundwater and soil, one should not confused ground source of heat with geothermal heat that only have a little share with the all heat in the ground. Domestic waste water and streams are some other heat sources. Numerous heat sources have been used for heating public and private buildings; heat pumps are classified into two main groups: compression heat pumps and absorption heat pumps where compression heat pumps are operated using electricity and absorption heat pumps use either electricity or burnable fuels to drive with.

Trouble free to install and used widely generally across the world and particularly near all the parts of US, Air source heat pumps can provide an efficient heating and cooling for a private buildings. They can not prove cost effective in the regions with sub-freezing winter temperatures as they will perform haphazardly to meet all the heating needs; however some companies are trying to triumph over this problem by appreciating new systems with gas heating, even Reverse Cycle Chiller is said to be operated at below freezing temperatures. According to an estimate almost 50,000 geothermal heat pumps are installed every year in the US, owing to their being more efficient as compare to air source heat pumps, for the source of a geothermal heat pump is soil or water under the ground and naturally the ground temperature remains at a consistent level all over the year. A comparison between geothermal and air source heat pumps shows that though expensive in installation for they require digging up of wells and trenches, geothermal heat pumps are most durable and required less maintenance with freedom of having any dependence on external air temperature.

Proper maintenance is the key to efficient operation of the heat pumps whether it is an air source heat pump or a geothermal. Energy Guide Label is provided with every heat pump helps you to determine the difference among heating and cooling efficiency of various models. A striking innovation in air source heat pumps is RCC (Reverse Cycle Chiller) which offers the consumer an economical heating and cooling system in the areas where natural gas is not available.