Make significant savings on your home heating and domestic hot water bills
A heat pump system is an air conditioning unit that works in reverse to either heat the required space directly with refrigerant or indirectly by heating water that is then used to heat the required space with under floor pipes or radiators. This hot water can also be used to heat a hot water tank. 300 to 500% efficiency is normal with heat pump technology. That means you can expect 3 to 5KW of heat for every 1KW of electric you pay for.
There are three types of heat pump and many brands available:
Air to Air is the most efficient heat pump system; this type of heat pump is not required to heat hot water before heating the space required. It has refrigerant running between its outdoor unit and indoor units, therefore little chance of any energy loss before heating the required space. Effective cooling is available from these systems because they are also an air conditioning system. These systems will also give added benefits of cleaning the air in the required space and a dehumidify mode is available
This type of heat pump is what you will find in most commercial heat pump installations and quite often, expected in new commercial buildings so why not our homes?
They have been made a lot more aesthetically pleasing on the eye for the domestic market as you will see on this website and considerations with air flow have been made so they are whisper quiet.
These systems must be installed by air conditioning or refrigeration engineers with fgas certification. We believe this to be one of the reasons people have not been made more aware of these systems.
Why would a plumbing company promote these systems?
Hot water for your home can be provided by a small dedicated all in one heat pump hot water tank. You will see examples of these units on this website. They do not need an outside unit they are a tank and heat pump all in one system and can also use energy recovered from your home
Air to Water is the next most efficient in our view for the UK climate. We are a mild country and we rarely go below zero degrees Celsius for long periods. The Met office site will help you with average temperatures for your area. A low temperature air to water system are perfectly suited for under floor heating. They do rely on back up heat i.e. emersion or other heat source when the temperature drops below zero degrees Celsius for long periods. These back up heaters are already fitted to the systems provided by Howecool. High temperature heat pumps are now available using only the heat pump technology and not having to use an emersion heater for higher temperature water. These are useful systems for retrofitting radiator and OIL and LPG systems and poorly insulated houses.
Ground to Water is the next available system. These systems are not affected the same way as air to water systems when the climate drops below zero degrees when correctly installed. They have a large installation cost and require large areas of land or expensive bore holes to extract the heat. With this in mind payback time could be quite long.
Solar thermal energy can be used also to heat the tanks in all the above systems.
All the above heat pump systems are efficient forms of heating and great savings can be made in running costs against OIL AND LPG systems. Their carbon footprint is a lot smaller as well.
If there is mains gas available to your property then the savings will be less against a gas combi-boiler due to low installation costs of these systems and gas is relatively cheap against electric at the moment. That said, air to air heat pumps are cheaper to run than a gas fire, you also have cooling and cleaner air for your home.
We must stress the most important thing before considering your new heating system; this is to insulate your home to the best that is practically possible. This may reduce the size of heat pump required and also your running costs.
Further Heat Pump Benefits
- Save up to 70% on bills (compared to gas) even more savings against other forms of heating
- Cut C02 by up to 50%
- No Gas or Oil Supply required
- Uses existing radiators / heating emitters (where possible)
- Replaces your gas or oil boiler (combi or regular) thus no gas or oil needed and no risk of carbon monoxide (with gas boilers)
- Cooling Capabilities
- Low Maintenance
- No ground holes or digging needed. Easily installed within 2 days
- Long lifespan of 20 years compared to gas boiler of 12 years
- Reports suggest installing a heat pump will add up to 10% to the value of your house