How Do Heat Pumps Work?

Record numbers of homeowners are choosing to install heat pumps in their homes, especially as households can take advantage of a £7500 grant via the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.

In this article, we’ll answer some common FAQs about heat pumps, helping you understand how they work.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme

Before we talk about heat pumps just a quick note on the scheme.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme could give you up to £7500 to cover the cost of replacing a fossil fuel heating system with a biomass boiler or heat pump. The exact amount you might receive will depend on your eligibility, which you can test here.

The grant means that some families will be able to install a heat pump for less than the cost of an average boiler.

Heat Pumps: Everything You Need to Know

A heat pump uses electricity to offer both heating and cooling effects to a building.

The appliances are incredibly efficient as they transfer heat/cool from one room to another, and from outside to inside, depending on where it is needed.

A heat pump uses environmental energy to generate heating and hot water for your home. They do this by extracting thermal energy (heat) from the air, ground or a local water source. The heat pump can then convert this energy into heating and hot water for your home.

They can also work in reverse, cooling your home by moving heat from the inside of the property to the outside. The heat pump’s compressor pumps refrigerant through a system of coils. The first coil is the indoor coil, which is filled with cold refrigerant which absorbs heat from the air inside your home. The warmed refrigerant is then moved to the outdoor coil, which moves the heat outside.

Heat Pumps: Some Interesting Statistics

To give you an idea of how popular these appliances are becoming, and how energy-efficient they are, we have some interesting statistics for you.

1. Heat pumps are 3-5 times more energy efficient than gas boilers. They can reach 300-400% efficiency, meaning they produce ¾ times as much heat energy as they use in electricity.
2. The UK has around 412 heat pumps per 100,000 people. The UK government, however, plans to increase this number to an installation rate of 600,000 heat pumps per year, by 2028 (Heatpumps).
3. Between 70-80% of the energy provided by an average heat pump is renewable.

Heat Pump Installation

If you’re looking for heat pump installation in London, get in touch with us. The AC Instals team of engineers can offer reasonable and professional heat pump installation, allowing you to heat and cool your home in a more environmentally friendly way.