What are Air Source Heating Pumps?
A solution to both heating and air conditioning, Air Source Heat Pumps, or ASHP’s, extract heat from the air outside and pump it into the building. They use a compressor to further heat up the intake of air, the temperature of which is transferred to your heating system. As an alternative to heating your space, they reduce but don’t eliminate, electricity costs incurred by heating.
How does an ASHP combine air conditioning and heating; what are the benefits?
Air source heat pumps can be used for air or water heating, and when used to heat air they can double up as air conditioning units. Not only is fresh air cycled through your building, but some units can also cool the space when functioning in the reverse way, and can work to heat in lower temperatures meaning they are highly seasonal units.
Improving air quality, at a controlled temperature is one of the clear benefits of ASHP’s. With low maintenance and running cost, as well as easy installation compared to ground source heat pumps, they are a good way to reduce the carbon emissions and running costs of your space.
Do Air source heat pumps save money?
In short, yes. Heat pumps move the heat rather than burn fuels to create it, and as a result, delivers up to 4 times the heat for the energy consumed, for example, 1kW of electricity will transfer 4kW of heat into a room, so it has a 1:4 ratio over the traditional 1:1 used by traditional heating solutions.
Unlike ground heat pumps, air-source heat pumps have a low installation cost as there is no digging required. The versatility of ASHP’s which heat and cool reduce the number of different units you need to install and mean that temperature can be regulated in a more effective way. If a building has underfloor heating or good insulation then ASHP’s work at their best. As their source of heat is the outside air, their only running costs are the electricity used to power them, which does not exceed other, more common solutions to heating such as boilers.
Find out more about the installation process here.
If you want to learn more about ASHP’s in your space or want to explore other energy-efficient options for heating your home, contact I-HT to chat with one of our team members.
