| Why do most people seem so confused and | | | | cool a room: You install a heat pump, and |
| bewildered about heat pumps? They have been | | | | it's warm inside. A heat pump will circulate |
| around now for at least several decades, yet | | | | the air in the room, capture the heat energy |
| the technology behind them seems to mystify | | | | that is there, and transfer that heat energy |
| so many people. So, I decided to research | | | | outside. Because heat energy has been taken |
| this subject for myself in order to tell you | | | | out from the room, you will feel cooler. |
| how - in layman's terms - these things work | | | | |
| | | | What do you do in the winter? Simply reverse |
| The first thing I should deal with, I guess, | | | | the whole process: use your heat pump to move |
| is the name itself: heat pumps. Why are they | | | | heat energy from the outside to your rooms |
| called that? If they are pumps, then what are | | | | inside (even when it's cold outside there's |
| they 'pumping?' Well, the word pump is | | | | heat energy there, remember?). You will feel |
| actually very appropriate (at least to my | | | | warmer in that room as a result. |
| mind), as pumps move something - water, gas, | | | | |
| oil - from one place (like the bottom of a | | | | One very important not: heat pumps, by |
| well) to another place (like your sink). And | | | | themselves, do not burn fuel to add heat to a |
| that's exactly what heat pumps do: they move, | | | | cold room - they simply move it from |
| or 'pump' heat energy. If this is a hard | | | | someplace else. This means that a heat pump |
| concept for you to grasp, here's an | | | | is not a furnace, which burns fuel. A heat |
| illustration. Imagine letting a cup of hot | | | | pump is an energy-transferor, not an |
| tea sit awhile to cool down. Now think about | | | | energy-producer. |
| it: What really happened? Well, when a hot | | | | |
| liquid cools, the heat energy passes from the | | | | Some heat pumps are called air-source heat |
| hot liquid to the air surrounding it. In | | | | pumps, so called because they use the air |
| other words, heat was 'pumped' (moved) from | | | | (surrounding the unit or from a separate unit |
| one location to another. | | | | outdoors) as their source for heating and |
| | | | cooling. |
| You might not realize it, but even on the | | | | |
| coldest day outside, the air contains some | | | | Other types of heat pumps are called |
| heat energy. The same is true for the ground | | | | Geothermal heat pumps - they draw heat energy |
| beneath our feet: it has the capacity to | | | | from the ground outside (below the frost |
| store, or hold, heat energy. Heat pumps | | | | line) to heat, or pump excess heat energy |
| simply move, or 'pump' heat energy from one | | | | into the ground to cool. They do this by |
| place to another. When you use a heat pump to | | | | transferring heat energy through a series of |
| heat or cool a room, you are making use of | | | | coils that are buried deep in the ground. You |
| this basic fact of physics. | | | | may not realize it but below a certain depth |
| | | | the temperature of the ground remains fairly |
| Let's see this in action when you decide to | | | | constant year-round. |