What is a heat pump?
So, what is a Heat Pump?
A heat pump is a heating system which harnesses energy from free renewable sources outside the building, for heating your house and producing your hot water. A heat pump uses electricity to run a compressor which draws heat from a low temperature source, such as external air or the ground and then increases the temperature of this heat in order provide heating to the building's interior.
While conventional heating systems such as storage heaters and boilers cannot produce more heat than that contained in their fuel source, a heat pump can! Through the use of a special refrigerant and the unit's compressor, a heat pump will typically produce three to four units of heat for every unit of electricity consumed. This sounds complicated, right? But we are very familiar with a very similar technology already in all of our homes; the fridge! A fridge works in a very similar manner to an air-source heat pump, drawing in ambient air from behind the fridge and through the use of a compressor and a refrigerant, reduces the temperature to keep products cold. It works in reverse but basically, it's the same technology.