Heat Pumps: What You Need To Know

You know, it simply amazes me how modern technology not only scares most people, it confuses them as well. Having learned a thing or two about the ubiquitous heat pump, I thought I'd share some of these insights, and perhaps remove some of the mystery about how they operate.

First of all: The name - heat pump. Why are these things called a heat pump? What are they pumping anyway? The word 'pump' suggests that heat pumps are moving something, and indeed they are: heat, or more accurately, heat energy. Here's an illustration of heat 'moving.' Go and get a cup of coffee from your favorite coffee shop. It's piping hot when you get it (hopefully). But let it sit 15 or 20 minutes - then take a sip. What has happened? It 'cooled off,' right? Well, what really happened? Actually the heat energy present in the hot liquid escaped and was transferred into the air surrounding the cup. Heat was 'moved' from one location to another. Simple, huh?

Perhaps you never learned this in school, but even on the very coldest of winter days, there is heat energy present in the air. The same thing is true for the ground we walk on: it has the capacity to hold a lot of heat energy. Heat pumps simply move, or 'pump' heat energy from one place to another. When you have a hot room you can use a heat pump device to make it cooler, using this basic fact of physics.

Let's see this in action when you decide to cool a room: You install a heat pump, and it's warm inside. A heat pump will circulate the air in the room, capture the heat energy that is there, and transfer that heat energy outside. Because heat energy has been taken out from the room, you will feel cooler.

In the wintertime we can just reverse the process: heat energy from outside is moved - 'pumped' to one or more rooms inside (even when it's cold outside there's heat energy available, remember?). You will feel warmer in that room as a result.

One very important not: heat pumps, by themselves, do not burn fuel to add heat to a cold room - they simply move it from someplace else. This means that a heat pump is not a furnace, which burns fuel. A heat pump is an energy-transferor, not an energy-producer.

Some heat pumps are called air-source heat pumps. They use the surrounding air as their 'source' for heating and cooling.

Other types of heat pumps include Geothermal heat pumps. These units use the ground - they draw heat from it to warm, and expel heat into it to cool. They make use of a complex system of coils that are buried into the ground. What makes it possible for these units to work is that below a certain depth, the temperature of the ground actually does not change very much from season-to-season.

Article Source: http://mylilpeanut.com

About the author: Jen Garvin writes about home improvement and Heat Pump Installation Learn more about the details of Heat Pump Problems by visiting her website.
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