HEAT PUMPS

Heat pumps offer the most energy-efficient way to provide heating and cooling in many applications, as they can use renewable heat sources in our surroundings. Even at temperatures we consider to be cold, air, ground and water contain useful heat that's continuously replenished by the sun. By applying a little more energy, a heat pump can raise the temperature of this heat energy to the level needed. Similarly, heat pumps can also use waste heat sources, such as from industrial processes, cooling equipment or ventilation air extracted from buildings. A typical electrical heat pump will just need 100 kWh of power to turn 200 kWh of freely available environmental or waste heat into 300 kWh of useful heat. For more information about the technical aspects of these energy savings are achieved visit:

International Energy Agency's information centre for heat pumping technologies

The illustration below shows one benefit (among many) of a heat pump, the continuous fan:

When a system doesn't operate in continuous fan, the air is able to stratify, with warm air rising to the ceiling and cool air dropping to the floor. This can cause as much as a 7° temperature difference from floor to ceiling.	With continuous fan, the fan continues to run at a lower rate even when the system isn't heating or cooling your home. This keeps the air in your home mixing and can reduce the floor to ceiling temperature difference to as little as 2°.