A ground source heat pump extracts the energy from a large body of low-grade heat and converts this into a smaller amount of high temperature heat. It then creates the energy for your domestic heating.

Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP) are an excellent way to heat a building and provide hot water whilst making a massive reduction in the buildings carbon output. Significant cost savings can also be achieved by reducing fuel consumption.

A GSHP can be most simply explained as a refrigerator in reverse. A refrigerator sucks the heat out of its interior (and by so doing lowers the temperature of the interior) and then dumps this heat through a radiator on the back (and so raises the temperature of the radiator).

You may have noticed for instance that the radiator on the back of your refrigerator is always warm. If this explanation is a little confusing, just be aware that ‘heat’ and ‘temperature’ are two different things. A body can have a lot of heat stored in it but be a relatively low temperature – the sea for example. Alternatively things can have a high temperature but not much heat.

Energy Extraction

A GSHP extracts the energy from a large body of low-grade heat and converts this into a smaller amount of high temperature heat. It then creates the energy for your domestic heating from the untapped ‘waste’ energy that permanently resides in the ground outside your home.

The energy that can be extracted from the ground depends on a number of factors.

  • The greater the area you extract energy from, the more energy can be extracted at any given time. (When energy is extracted from the ground we lower the temperature around the extraction pipe.
  • This energy has to be replaced by the surrounding ground before we can extract any more (i.e. raise the temperature again) so that we can extract a small but consistent amount of energy from every metre of extraction pipe.
  • The more pipes, the more energy we can extract in total.

The technical term for this type of generated heat is called ‘the latent heat of evaporation’. To help understand this, imagine you have been swimming and are stood on a windy beach, you will soon begin to feel very cold as the water evaporates from your body. This is because the water, in order to evaporate, has to extract the heat from your skin.

GSHP Technology

The energy saving capability of a GSHP system is dependent on what use is made of the output. Lower temperature applications yield very much the greatest benefits. This is why they are ideal for projects such as under floor heating systems or for heating swimming pools.

Under floor heating temperatures are much lower than traditional radiator schemes and provide the same (or better) level of comfort. To heat say a room using under floor heating via a GSHP is probably the cheapest means currently available. As energy prices continue to rise, savings will also increase.

Other potential benefits:

  • Can reduce your home’s carbon footprint (carbon emissions) depending on which fuel you are replacing.
  • No fuel deliveries required.
  • Can provide both spatial heating and hot water.
  • Can lower fuel bills, particularly if you are currently using conventional electric heating.
  • It’s often classed as ‘fit and forget’ technology because it requires little maintenance.

Grants

Unfortunately as of 06.00 am Monday 24th May 2010, the Low Carbon Building Programme (LCBP) was closed to all new applications.

If you would like to find out more please contact us today on
+44 (0) 8714 333 333 to discuss your requirements and to find out more about Ground Source Heat Pump technology services.

Related Links

Ground Source Heat Pump Association
Centre for Alternative Technology