Benefits of Having an Air Source Heat Pump, and the Ease It Provides
The air source heat pump transforms renewable energy from the air, soil or water into useful heat for comfortable heating and warm drinking water.
The most common heat pump technology uses a very efficient refrigeration cycle that typically delivers 3 to 5 times more useful energy than is absorbed in a compressor.
In addition, some heat pumps are reversible, which means they can heat in winter and cool in summer.
But, we are talking about an air source heat pump, considered a type of heat pump that absorbs heat from a place where it is very cold and releases it to a warmer place.
This process occurs through the use of the same vapor compression refrigeration process and the same external fan heat exchanger used by an air conditioner.
We can say that, the technology is similar to a refrigerator or freezer or air conditioning unit: the different effect is due to the physical location of the different components of the system.
In this way, just as the pipes on the back of a refrigerator heat up as the interior cools, an ASHP heats the interior of a building while cooling the outside air.
As an example of this, a “standard” domestic air source heat pump can extract useful heat down to about -15°C (5°F). At colder outside temperatures, the heat pump is less efficient; it can be turned off and the premises heated using only supplemental heat (or emergency heat) if the supplemental heating system is large enough.
Also, there are specially designed heat pumps that, while giving up some performance in cooling mode, provide useful heat extraction to further reduce outside temperatures.
Therefore, heating and cooling is accomplished by pumping a refrigerant through the internal and external coils of the heat pump.As in a refrigerator, a compressor, condenser, expansion valve, and evaporator are used to change the states of the refrigerant between cooler liquid and warmer gas states.