Heat Pumps take heat from the ground or air (or water) and use it for space heating, and sometimes to heat hot water. They are like a fridge in reverse. The fridge takes heat from the food you put in it, and pumps that into the kitchen, keeping the food cold. The heat pumps take heat from the ground or air and pump it into your house, keeping it warm. They work best for Underfloor Heating Systems rather than radiators or for domestic hot water as in general they heat water to a lower temperature than normal domestic boilers.

Ground Source - A Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) has a long loop of pipe, filled with water and anti-freeze buried in the earth. Depending on available space it can be in a trench at least 2m deep or down a borehole. The liquid in the pipe (or ground loop) absorbs heat from the ground which a couple of metres below the surface is a fairly stable 8 - 12° C all year round.

Air Source - Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP) work in a similar way, but instead of taking air from the ground, they extract heat from the air outside your home, using an evaporator coil. This looks like the big fans on air conditioner units and is fixed on an outside wall of the building.

Both heat pump technologies will benefit from the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) from Apr 2011 provided they are installed by accredited installers using accredited appliances.

Pellgen Ltd has partners who are accredited to do all these renewable technologies, and for an installation that requires one of these combined with a solar hot water or biomass installation we can project manage the whole installation.

For further information call Pellgen
on 0845 409 2187