What Type of Heat Pump Is Best for You?

this content was taken from our groundbreaking heat pump and system design training Engineers that take this course and pass our rigorous verification process are arguably the best engineers in the country and capable of Designing and installing the most efficient heat pump systems possible and they can be found at heatgeek.com heat pumps simply move heat from A to B if you're cooling the property you're obviously moving heat from the inside of the property to the outside when moving heat into the building however the actual heat Source can vary for example you could Source heat from the ground air water or in the case of commercial properties anything else that's being cooled such as a server room or commercial fridge by far the most common source of heat energy or sink if cooling is air to extract heat from the air we essentially use a radiator like a combustion car engine with a fan blowing over it these come as monoblock or split units split units were historically the most common as the name suggests these units are split into two they have one outside with a condenser or evaporator AKA a fan coil and another unit on the inside with a condenser slash evaporator fan coil or a plate heat exchanger if they're going to power a water-based system like radiators or underfloor heating the compressor and expansion valves are located on the outside units for noise and space a refrigerant gas is what carries the heat between the two units and needs to be carefully injected into the system by a fridge gas engineer again the indoor units can either have fan coil units like the unit outside these are known as air-to-air heat pumps or they can be connected to water to run around radiators for air-to-water heat pumps the main advantage of these split units is that you can cite the indoor unit quite far away from the heat source and so they're very helpful for commercial buildings a monoblock system is becoming the unit of choice for Airsoft heat pumps connected to radiators and underfloor heating these have both condenser and evaporator elements outside and sometimes incorporate system pump as well because these don't have custom built fridge lines going into the house they don't need to be filled by a fridge technician and so save time cost and risk the benefits of delivering the heat to the property via air are the building is heated up faster and there's some air filtration and air conditioning however they're generally less comfortable for Living Spaces if we're delivering this heat via radiators or under floor heating low temperature radiant heat delivery is slower to heat up but suits a more stable environment and is more comfortable for stationary occupants if sites in the outdoor unit is difficult though you can use the ground as your heat Source round Source heat pumps were historically more efficient than air source as the ground temperature is a lot more stable than the air and as most of the heat is generated in Winter having a ground of around 12 degrees Celsius increases efficiency however recent improvements in heat pumps have recently really narrowed the Gap and put air and ground on a much more Level Playing Field particularly with lower flow temperature systems the heat Source temperature is much less important than what it used to be with a higher importance placed on the flow temperature required for the radiators in other words hydronic design such as what's taught in The Awakening and Mastery courses from heatgeek collectors are pipework that ground Source heat pumps use to collect or deposit heat into the ground with a heat transfer fluid historically this was made up of a mixture of water and salt called brime the addition of salt lowers the freezing point to around -20 degrees C to enable the ground Loop to run around zero degrees without any risk of freezing and damaging the equipment this is the reason a ground Source heat pump collector is still called a brine Loop and the circulating pump called the brine pump these days we use a mixture of water and glycol mixed to a freezing point of approximately minus 15 degrees Celsius there are two main different types of collector vertical arrays and horizontal arrays horizontal arrays need space horizontal arrays are where trenches are dug up around a field and pipe work is laid in which will extract about 10 to 18 watts per meter of pipe however needs to be calculated they can be laid in a single pipe configuration a double pipe configuration vertical or horizontal Slinky or a compact collector trenches can be dug up in different patterns but importantly the more concentrated they are the lower the efficiency and the more risk there is of freezing the ground which is literally disastrous the best and most efficient formation is the largest single Loop pipe possible covering as much ground as possible the least is a compact collector the greater the surface area used the less issues and the highest efficiency and as such slinkies and compact collectors are rarely fitted if ever installed at all now a full ground survey should be complete to check the ground is suitable before the works are done the ground should be conductive which requires moisture dry ground will conduct less heat holding water is not enough though the water must move and replenish as such both the porosity and the permeability will need to be approximately understood vertical Rays or borehole Loops are again split up into two types of collectors open loop or closed loop closed loop is where a borehole is drilled down Circa 80 to 120 meters into the Earth and a casing pushed down to stop the collapse of the borehole a collector pipe with 180 degree Bend in the end is then dropped down with the weight a grout is then back filled using a tremi pipe to ensure there is no collapse and to ensure the best contact for the thermal transfer with the ground the installation will need approximately 40 to 60 meters of pipe per kilowatt load required but needs a full calculation several boreholes will be needed for a typical house the number of which really though depends on how deep they are and a full geological ground survey again is essential open loop vertical arrays make use of aquifers instead of using a brine mix imagine aquifers as underground Lakes where water slowly moves from one end to the other one pipe goes Upstream collecting water and pumping it to the heat pump and it's then returned further back Downstream the advantage of open loop is that there is slightly better heat transfer into the heat pump system however the pump needs more power to draw the water up and it can be difficult to get right so needs experience and a specialist and does need more maintenance as a filter to clean on a regular basis open loop and closed loop are also used for water source water source extracts heat energy from any river or lake the rate at which the water replenishes in relation to the load it's trying to apply is very important for example a large lake for a relatively small load say five kilowatts shouldn't need much if any replenishment a much larger load and smaller Lake will need a constant supply of fresh more heat energy dense water to stop the lake freezing up and the heat pump grinding to a halt like ground Source this can be open or closed loop with the same pros and cons of the filter cleaning and improved heat exchange between the two options pump power consumption isn't as extreme though as it doesn't have to fight gravity also similarly a consideration should be given as to where the water is taken from and returned to to avoid recirculation in the case of a lake take from the top and deliver the colder water to the lower levels with rivers again taking from upstream and deliver the expended water Downstream the last variant of heat pump to be aware of is high temperature heat pumps as the name suggests high temperature heat pumps produce higher flow temperatures which can be helpful when heating more difficult properties that may have limited space for emitters or restricted insulation high temperature heat pumps achieve this with two compression stages the second additional stage taking a separate refrigerant to a higher temperature these are less efficient however the higher the flow temperature required the lower the efficiency always thankfully recent improvements in refrigerants such as R32 and r290 have meant higher flow temperatures of 70 degrees C can be achieved with one single stage compression and also with improved High efficiency at higher temperatures this full course can be found at courses.heatgeek.com and don't forget to comment with any questions you might have as well of course please subscribe to the channel we'll see you on the next one [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: Heat Geek

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Keywords: air source heat pump green homes grant, air source heat pump system, boiler, climate change 2022, climate change solutions, combi boiler, condensing boiler, electric heater, electric water heater, heat loss, heat pump, heat pumps, heat pumps explained, heating system, heatpump, how does a heat pump work, how heat pumps work, natural gas forecast, new technology 2023, renewable energy, renewable energy documentary, renewable energy sources, tankless water heater

Id: iIZf95rS7UQ

Length: 9min 46sec (586 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 26 2023