HEAT PUMPS IN STAFFORDSHIRE, CHESHIRE AND SHROPSHIRE

How does a heat pump work?

 

To keep it on an ‘easy to understand’ level, any type of heat pump operates using liquid refrigerants- the same as a domestic fridge. These are man made liquids that are designed to absorb and move heat from one place to another using the ‘vapour compression cycle’.

 

Without getting into a Chemistry lecture, liquid refrigerants are contained under high pressure and pumped around in small coils or tubes. In their natural state, these refrigerants are around -55 degrees in temperature, so can quite easily absorb heat from whatever is around. A domestic refrigerator is the best example of how refrigerants move heat; you have a container of milk which has travelled with you from the supermarket and is around 15 degrees Celsius when you get home. You put the milk container in your fridge and an hour later it is 5 degrees, so it has given away 10 degrees of its heat. The refrigerants that travel through a panel on of the inside of your fridge (-50 degrees) have absorbed the heat from the milk and moved it to another panel behind your fridge, which will be hot to touch because this is where the refrigerant is expelling the unwanted heat into the outside air.

 

What happens next?

The bit in-between which is where the magic happens, this is called the ‘vapour compression cycle’. Air or ground-source heat pumps will normally generate around 50 degrees Celsius- so how can it do this by absorbing heat from outside air when the temperature is only 10 degrees? It's easier to understand when you consider the liquid refrigerant is -55c. Refrigerants in their natural state are not only very cold but they also have a very low ‘boiling point’. The type used in heat pumps is called R32 and has a boiling point of -52 degrees Celsius, so it only has to raise its temperature by 3 degrees to boil or change state from a liquid to a vapour. The ‘boiling point’ of any liquid is when it changes its state from a liquid to a vapour, the best example being water, which has a boiling point of 100C (at sea level) and changes into steam. Refrigerants do not resemble water in that way, when refrigerants boil they are still only -50 degrees Celsius, but they have at that point changed from a liquid to a vapour.

 

How is heat created?

 

The refrigerants therefore expand by a huge amount in volume, thereby creating a huge amount of pressure within the pipework and system. This vaporised refrigerant then passes through a compressor (that's the noise you can hear at the back of your fridge or freezer) and its pressure is raised even higher and forced through a very small hole which is where it creates a huge amount of heat. This heat is then passed to the surrounding area, which can be to water by using a heat exchanger or water jacket (‘Air to Water’ heat pump), or to the air by using a fan to pass the air over the hot pipework or coil and into the surrounding area (air conditioning unit or an ‘Air to Air’ heat pump).

 

Ground-source heat pumps work in the same way, but by using pipework in the ground containing antifreeze or glycol to absorb heat from the earth in the same way that air source absorbs heat from the air.

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If you would like to enquire about switching to this eco-friendly and money-saving heat provider today, or if you have any questions, please call us on 0178 5811111 or 07973 291702 and we'll be happy to talk you through our installations services. 

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As part of our mission to provide a greener, more sustainable service, we are proud to be MCS Certified and take part in the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which provides grants to cover part of the costs of replacing your old boiler with a heat pump. 

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