Sources of heat, Heat Pumps

To understand the main principle of the heat pump, you need to realize that heat is a form of energy, the amount of which depends on the temperature, which happens to exist at that time. In air, soil and water, in the air extracted from the buildings, and in the wastewater of any kind, there is a huge amount of heat that only useless, because the temperature is too low. From all of these sources of heat can be extracted, and with a little additional costs of high-grade energy heat pump can update the waste heat to a temperature suitable for heating of premises.

The primary sources of heat include air, water and soil. In practice, the air is the most common source of energy for heat pumps in water and soil-source systems rarely applied. In General, air, soil and groundwater is considered to be the number of heat sources for small heat pump installations, while the surface water, sea water and geothermal are more suitable for large systems and heat pumps. How low-temperature sources is concerned, groundwater and surface water, air and soil are most often used.

Technical and economic indicators of the heat pump, is closely related to the characteristics of the source of heat. An ideal source of heat for heat pumps in buildings has a high and stable temperature during the heating season, is abundant, not aggressive or contaminated favorable thermal properties, and requires low investment and operating costs. In most cases, however, the presence of a source of heat is a key determinant of its use. Table 4.4 presents widely used sources of heat. Ambient and exhaust air, soil and groundwater, are practical source of heat for small systems and heat pumps, and sea/lake/river water, rock (geothermal) and wastewater used for large heat pump system.

Several heat pump configuration can be visualized using a seemingly inexhaustible number of energy sources. Some of these energy sources outside air, sensible heat from the stream or well water, latent heat diffusion of water (ice), the warm discharge of waste water from industry, fireplace waste heat, heat, electricity Sewerage. Most of these sources of energy are not widely available to the General public. Four types of heat pump systems commonly used in practice:

One package heat pumps, using as a source of air,
Split-systems, heat pumps, using as a source of air,
One package heat pumps utilize the water from the source, and
Split-systems, heat pumps, using water source.

One package heat pumps have all the necessary components contained in a single unit, while a split system heat pumps house of the basic components in two separate parts (i.e., one block of outdoor and one block in the room).

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