Why do most people seem so confused and bewildered about heat pumps? They have been around now for at least several decades, yet the technology behind them seems to mystify so many people. So, I decided to research this subject for myself in order to tell you how - in layman's terms - these things work First of all let's start with the name: heat pumps. Just what exactly do they 'pump?' Well, to my mind the word pump suggests something that is being pumped, something that is moving, or being moved - and that's just what heat pumps do: they move, or 'pump' heat energy. I'd like to give you an illustration of what it's like to have heat 'moving', and it's as close as your neighborhood coffee shop. When you buy that piping-hot beverage, and you can't drink it, what can you do? Well, you can just let it sit for a few minutes to cool down. But what really happened? Well, what actually happened is that the heat energy from the hot coffee escaped - it transferred - from the coffee and went into the air surrounding it. In other words, heat was 'pumped' from one location to another. Simple! Now you might not know this, but even on the coldest days in the wintertime, the air contains some heat energy. The same thing is true for the ground below: it has the capacity to hold, or store, heat energy. Heat pumps simply move, or 'pump' heat energy from one place to another. When you have a cold room you can use a heat pump to make it warmer, using this basic fact of physics. Let's see how this might in cooling a room: You have a heat pump installed in your living room, and it's warm inside. A heat pump will circulate the air and capture the heat energy in that room, and then transfer the heat energy outside. The result? You 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. It's important to note that heat pumps, by themselves, do not actually use fuel to add heat energy to a room - they simply move it from place to place. This makes any heat pump different from a traditional furnace. Furnaces heat a room by burning fuel (gas, oil, electric) to add the necessary heat, whereas a heat pump simply gets it from another location. 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 are called Geothermal heat pumps, as these units draw heat energy from the ground to heat, or pump excess heat energy into the ground to cool. They utilize a system of coils that are buried in the ground. These units work because below a certain depth the temperature of the ground does not change much - no matter what the season of the year.
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Why do most people seem so confused and bewildered about heat pumps? They have been around now for at least several decades, yet the technology behind them seems to mystify so many people. So, I decided to research this subject for myself in order to tell you how - in layman's terms - these things work
Author: Jen Garvin discusses home improvement and Heat Pump Installation Read about the details of heat pump prices by visiting her website. Get your own completely unique content version of this article.
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