How pumps work


Heat Pumps: What You Need To Know

Why do most people seem so confused andcool a room: You install a heat pump, and
bewildered about heat pumps? They have beenit's warm inside. A heat pump will circulate
around now for at least several decades, yetthe air in the room, capture the heat energy
the technology behind them seems to mystifythat is there, and transfer that heat energy
so many people. So, I decided to researchoutside. Because heat energy has been taken
this subject for myself in order to tell youout  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 theyheat energy from the outside to your rooms
called that? If they are pumps, then what areinside (even when it's cold outside there's
they 'pumping?' Well, the word pump isheat energy there, remember?). You will feel
actually very appropriate (at least to mywarmer  in  that  room  as  a  result.
mind), as pumps move something - water, gas,
oil - from one place (like the bottom of aOne very important not: heat pumps, by
well) to another place (like your sink). Andthemselves, 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 hardsomeplace else. This means that a heat pump
concept for you to grasp, here's anis not a furnace, which burns fuel. A heat
illustration. Imagine letting a cup of hotpump is an energy-transferor, not an
tea sit awhile to cool down. Now think aboutenergy-producer.
it: What really happened? Well, when a hot
liquid cools, the heat energy passes from theSome heat pumps are called air-source heat
hot liquid to the air surrounding it. Inpumps, 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 someOther types of heat pumps are called
heat energy. The same is true for the groundGeothermal heat pumps - they draw heat energy
beneath our feet: it has the capacity tofrom the ground outside (below the frost
store, or hold, heat energy. Heat pumpsline) to heat, or pump excess heat energy
simply move, or 'pump' heat energy from oneinto the ground to cool. They do this by
place to another. When you use a heat pump totransferring heat energy through a series of
heat or cool a room, you are making use ofcoils 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 toconstant year-round.



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