Solar panels and energy crunch forum

Still catch the sun's power even if solar panels are not an option.

Commonly used in the commercial world, heat pumps are now proving a popular energy saving domestic technology. These systems use the sun's passive heat; and are popular with under-floor heating systems, this technology can be installed within any garden area, or wall mounted.

The purpose of heat pumps is to absorb heat from the ground (ground source) or the air (air source) and transfer it for use where it is needed, either for space or water heating.

The heat extracted is usually at a temperature too low to be useful, so this is boosted by the pump to a useful level.

Although the pump itself uses electricity to run, for every kW of energy it uses, it produces 3 to 5kW of energy in return.

As a result, these systems also work very well in tandem with pv solar panels.

The most common forms of heat pumps are:

Ground Source Heat Pumps - These do not use geothermal heat, but solar heat that has been stored in the earth. The heat collector consists of a long loop of piping, plumbed in a closed loop, and buried about a metre deep. The length of loop required varies according to individual requirements for heating a domestic situation.

Ground source heat pumps comprise of pipes buried within the garden or land around your property to extract heat from the ground heat. This is used to heat your home through space heating and your hot water tank. Beneath the grounds surface, the earth stays at a constant temporate temperature, so a ground source heat pump is used throughout the year even in the winter months.

The ground source heat pump circulates an antifreeze mix through a loop of pipe which is buried. Heat from the ground is absorbed into this fluid mix and is pumped through a heat exchanger in the heat pump. Low heat is then extracted and after passing through the heat pump compressor, is concentrated into a high temperature while useful heat capable of heating is distributed around the home. The fluid mixture, now cooler passes back to the ground where it continues the process.

The ground loop is flat like underfloor heating in a trench 2 metres deep, but if there is not enough space in your garden you can install a vertically laid loop to a depth of 100 metres for a typical domestic home.

Air Source Heat Pumps - These present an advantage over ground and water source pumps in that they are cheaper to install, and you don’t need to have your own estate in terms of space requirements.

The pump absorbs heat from the outside air to warm water or heat buildings. All heat pumps are most efficient when they are operating a low temperature distribution system such as under-floor heating rather than conventional radiators.

http://www.solar-panels.biz/air-source-heat-pumps-installations.php

Are heat pumps those white box/fans you see on the side of commercial buildings?

Yes, they are the most widely used renewable energy type currently in use worldwide.

It's going to take time to retro-fit heat pumps of this kind to crumbling British buildings, legislation to create uniform standards and fittings and even more time and money to perfect these and other green devices.

I have no doubt that once we start throwing money at these things at the the same rate and number as we have at nuclear submarines, white-phosphorous, cluster-bombs, Apache Helicopters and other instruments of pain and death that we will see rapid falls in price and rapid gains in efficiency.

We've only just begun and a whole feast of possibilities lie before us with renewable energy technologies in general.

Heat pumps will be part of the future of heating along with communal systems.

Unfortunately, it is not one size fits all. First we have to value energy and that will only happen once it becomes scarce. Our economy was built on cheap and available fosil fuel over the last 200 years; that is comming to an end soon, it is only the inertia that is stopping us accepting it and changing it.

Hello gentlemen

Heat pumps to be most efficient for space heating, underfloor heating should be used, since the circulated water temperature required is much less than for traditional wall-mounted radiators which require 60 degrees C or more (hand hot).

We now have a full detailed web page about how heat pumps work and the different types of domestic installations.

The attraction with heat pumps and especially air source heat pumps especially in an commercial environment is that you have to put very little energy in to get alot of energy out.

I am happy that they are now being offered to the domestic market.

A heat pump is a machine or device that moves heat from one place to another place at a lower temperature at higher temperatures or mechanical work with high-temperature heat pump or geothermal heat pump source.A geothermal heat with central heating and cooling system, the heat pump or a country. A heat pump is a device that uses a small amount of energy to move heat from one place to another.

Ground source heat pumps )are electrically powered systems that tap the stored energy of the greatest solar collector in existence: the earth. These systems(i.e.Ground source Heat pumps) use the earth’s relatively constant temperature to provide heating, cooling, and hot water for homes and commercial buildings The heat pump system uses solar energy stored in the earths crust. Energy is transferred to and from the earths surface by solar radiation wind and rainfalls.Ground sourced heat pumps simply move energy from one place to another. This energy is transferred over the condenser and into the distribution circuits, where hot water is circulated through the under floor circuits and in turn heat the property.