A ground source heat pump absorbs heat from the ground — by circulating water though piping in the ground — and transfers the heat into the building by circulating hot water though radiators, or underfloor piping circuits.
HOW GROUND SOURCE HEAT PUMPS WORK
The heat pump is able to increase the temperature it receives from the ground before circulating it into the house. It does this by compressing refrigerant gases. When a large volume of gas is compressed into a small space the heat energy in the gas becomes concentrated — the gas becomes very hot. The heat pump uses a heat exchanger to transfer that heat to the heating circuit in the building.
After the high pressure gas has yielded up its heat, the pressure of the gas is released and it then becomes very cold. The heat pump uses a heat exchanger to transfer that cold to the ground loop circuit. As the cold water is circulated through the ground it absorbs heat from the surrounding ground and the cycle can begin again.
OUR PRODUCTS
HOW EFFICIENT IS GROUND SOURCE HEAT PUMP?
A heat pump uses electricity to work its compressor and uses electricity to pump water through its circuits. However, most of the energy transferred into the building is transferred from the ground and this energy is free.
Therefore, a heat pump is very efficient at providing more heat energy than it uses to perform the work needed. A well-designed ground source heat pump installation can provide three or four kilowatts of heat for the consumption of one kilowatt of electricity.
The ratio of heat provided to electricity consumed over the heating season depends not only on the efficiency of the heat pump itself, but also on the properties of the building, the heat distribution system within the building and the size and on efficiency of the ground loop circuit.
It also depends on the temperature available from the ground
GROUND SOURCE HEAT PUMP INSTALLATION
A ground source heat pump installation consists of:
A GSHP in your building
A ground array for heat exchange with the ground (pipes in horizontal trenches or vertical boreholes)
A heat distribution system within your building (underfloor heating, oversized radiators or air ducting)
A control mechanism to transfer heat from where it is available to where it is needed.
The most critical component of a GSHP installation is the design. A good GSHP will not perform well without an adequate ground array to extract heat from, and a well-balanced heat distribution system within the building; it also needs a well-tuned control mechanism to achieve the right temperature balance in the building throughout the winter.
The same components can be designed to provide cooling in summer. If cooling is provided in summer — by allowing heat to escape to the ground —then this will improve the performance of heating in the following winter.