What is a heat pump?
A heat pump is a mechanical device that extracts heat that is present in the air, ground or water and boosts it so it can be used for heat and hot water in buildings.
As most of the heat comes from the environment and the electricity used to run the heat pump comes from our ever-decarbonising electrical grid, heat pumps are extremely green.
In the UK and Ireland, the three main types of heat pumps used are air source, ground source and water source heat pumps. Our commercial brand, Remeha, also has a range of gas absorption heat pumps.
Air source heat pumps (ASHPs) are generally preferred because they are more flexible to install. Ground source and water source heat pumps are generally more time consuming and difficult to install, because of the groundworks that are required.
How does a heat pump work?
Air source heat pumps extract heat from the air to provide heating and hot water for residential and commercial buildings. The units are usually situated outside the building.
Ambient air is pulled across a finned heat exchanger and the refrigerant inside is then superheated via an electrically driven compressor. This heat is then transferred to water through a plate heat exchanger, and pumped throughout the building to radiators, under floor heating or hot water tanks - just like a boiler.
