Heat Pumps: A Household Mystery Explained - By: Jen Garvin, Posted on: 2007-07-28

Why do most people seem so confused and bewildered about heat pumps? They have been around now for at least several decades, yet the technology behind them seems to mystify so many people. So, I decided to research this subject for myself in order to tell you how - in layman's terms - these things work

First of all: The name - heat pump. Why are these things called a heat pump? What are they pumping anyway? The word 'pump' suggests that heat pumps are moving something, and indeed they are: heat, or more accurately, heat energy. Here's an illustration of heat 'moving.' Go and get a cup of coffee from your favorite coffee shop. It's piping hot when you get it (hopefully). But let it sit 15 or 20 minutes - then take a sip. What has happened? It 'cooled off,' right? Well, what really happened? Actually the heat energy present in the hot liquid escaped and was transferred into the air surrounding the cup. Heat was 'moved' from one location to another. Simple, huh?

You might not realize it, but even on the coldest day outside, the air contains some heat energy. The same is true for the ground beneath our feet: it has the capacity to store, or hold, heat energy. Heat pumps simply move, or 'pump' heat energy from one place to another. When you use a heat pump to heat or cool a room, you are making use of this basic fact of physics.

Let's see how this might in cooling a room: You have a heat pump installed in your living room, and it's warm inside. A heat pump will circulate the air and capture the heat energy in that room, and then transfer the heat energy outside. The result? You feel cooler.

In the wintertime you simply reverse the process - you use your heat pump to move heat energy from the great outdoors to your cold rooms inside (remember what I told you: even in the dead of winter heat energy can be captured from the outside air). You will begin to feel warmer in that room as a result.

It is very important to remember that heat pumps do not actually burn fuel to add heat to any room - they simply move it from another location. This means that heat pumps are not furnaces - furnaces burn fuels, heat pumps do not. A heat pump is an energy-transferor, not a producer of energy.

Some heat pumps are called air-source heat pumps. They use the surrounding air as their 'source' for heating and cooling.

Other types of heat pumps are called Geothermal heat pumps - they draw heat energy from the ground outside (below the frost line) to heat, or pump excess heat energy into the ground to cool. They do this by transferring heat energy through a series of coils that are buried deep in the ground. You may not realize it but below a certain depth the temperature of the ground remains fairly constant year-round.

Article Source: http://www.southerncaliforniarealestateagent.com/submit-real-estate-articles

About the author: Jen Garvin writes about home improvement and Heat Pump Installation Learn more about the details of Heat Pump Problems by visiting her website.
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