Quite simply: a heat pump pumps heat from the environment into the house, raises it to a higher temperature level and makes it usable for heating. In principle, the heat pump works like a refrigerator - just the other way round.
While the refrigerator extracts heat from the food and the air inside it and releases it (unused) to the environment, the heat pump extracts heat from the environment and directs it into the pool or house. It does not even need high temperatures: temperatures can be below freezing and a heat pump will still work. As a fact. Air at -15 Degrees Celcius still holds 85% of the energy it holds at +25 Degrees C.
The principle of the heat pump works like a reverse refrigerator and is always the same regardless of the different variants:
The result: The pool is nice and warm and ready for swimming or the house is nice and cozy ready to put your feet up even though the "heat" comes from a potentially snow-covered floor behind the house.
For the quality of the heat pump is crucial how the ratio between the supplied and the recovered energy. There are two key figures for this:
In the annual work figure, values between 4 and 6 are considered good. These values are most likely to be reached when, for example
Possible sources of heat are soil, groundwater and ambient air:
The soil has a uniform temperature throughout the year. Therefore, at a depth of about 1.5 meters, surface collectors are designed, through whose pipes a mixture of water and antifreeze flows, this is also-called brine. The necessary area depends on the heat demand of the building. This variant is possible with enough available open spaces. Geothermal probes, however, are typically placed from 30 to 100 meters deep vertically into the ground. This requires less space, but is subject to approval.
Groundwater is also good because of its constant temperature as a source of heat. However, the groundwater supply on the property must be sufficient. This can be determined by a test hole. The quality of the water must be checked by means of a water analysis. The use of groundwater is subject to approval by the Local Water Authority
The air as a heat source is easy to tap into and available everywhere in sufficient quantity. The disadvantage is that air is the coldest when the heat demand is highest (heating season) for space heating but excellent for pool heating in the summer months.
To find out more about our pool heat pumps and our heating and cooling heat pumps feel free to speak to one of our experts.