Living in central London, the only heat pump that Staunch and Flow recommends is the Air to water heat pump.
Take the latent heat out of the atmosphere to heat your home.
Air source heat pumps remove the heat from the atmosphere. This in turn is used to heat your under floor system, radiators or air convectors as well as the hot water in your home.
How do air source heat pumps work
Air source heat pumps create heat the same way as a bicycle pump creates heat. If you put your thumb over the end off a bicycle pump. When you apply pressure on the pump, your thumb will start to burn under the heat produced. This is the same way a fridge works but in reverse. The air source heat pump will still work in temperatures down to –15.
Heat pumps do need some electricity to work. However it is only a small pump. This is nothing like the energy used in a conventional boiler.
Unlike gas or oil boilers, heat pumps deliver heat at lower temperatures over much longer periods. Thus in the winter they might have to be on 24/7. This has two major effects:
- Your heating is on all the time. It is very unnatural for the body to change temperatures all the time, as with conventional heating. This is most noticeable on winter mornings when a sudden change of temperature can wake people up. It is much more natural for the house to be at a constant temperature of 19 – 21.
- As a consequence of the temperature being much lower, the radiator temperature is also much lower. This is fine and happens because the heat output from your radiators has been designed to be of a certain temperature output. As a result larger radiators may need to be installed to compensate. Under floor heating is ideal for Air source heat pumps which give out heat at lower temperatures over longer periods of time, as well as fan assisted heat convectors.
- Lower fuel bills than Gas, Oil and especially if you are using conventional electric heating.
The benefits of Air source heat pumps
- It will reduce your carbon footprint.
- No fuel deliveries required. As the air is the heat source.
- As apposed to a conventional boiler. A heat pump has very little moving parts. So very little to go wrong and very little to maintain.
Is an air source heat pump suitable for my home? And how much will all this work cost
To tell if an air source heat pump is right for you, there are a few key questions to consider:
- Do you have a garden to put it in?
- Is your house well insulated?
- What sort of radiators / under floor heating do you have?
Costs for installing a typical system in a three-bedroom house range from about £7,000 to £11,000 including installation.
To reduce your home’s CO2 emissions further, consider using solar heating to provide low carbon hot water in the summer months.
Who are we?
Staunch and Flow are a plumber London company providing complete boiler and plumbing services to customers looking for West London plumbers.