Heat Pumps

Ground Source Heat Pumps are simple, well proven machines that can provide your entire central heating (radiators or under floor heating) and domestic hot water requirements.

The basic principle of a heat pump is to take low-grade heat from the ground, and convert it to high-grade heat for your property using refrigeration technology.

For every 1kW of electricity consumed by the heat pump, over 4kW of heat can be supplied to your property.

Your heat pump is fitted with a Rego control unit to guarantee you maximum savings and many years of service. The unit, which has advanced monitoring functions, controls the heating and domestic hot water in your property.  This ensures that all vital functions are monitored and that, if a fault occurs, the heat pump will shut down automatically to prevent damage.

On the rare occasions that the heat pump is not able to meet the heating requirements, additional electric heat is connected that, together with the heat pump, provides the required temperature.  The C and E series heat pumps have a built-in immersion heater that can be connected in three steps.  Factory setting is two thirds electrical output.  The additional heat only provides the output that the heat pump cannot generate and in this way can never take over heating the house entirely.  When the heat pump is once more able to meet the heating demand, the additional heater is automatically switched off.

If the power supply fails, the control unit remembers all its setting and re-starts the heat pump when the power returns.

The basic operation on the heat pump cycle is as  follows:

The compressor, which is driven by an electric motor, compresses the refrigerant to form a high temperature, high-pressure gas.  This gas then passes into the condenser (plate heat exchanger).  The water from the radiator system is also pumped through the condenser where the heat is transferred from the refrigerant to the radiator water.  As a result the refrigerant is cooled and condenses, changing state from a gas to a liquid.

After the condenser, the refrigerant passes through an expansion valve, which rapidly drops the pressure, and therefore lowering the boiling point of the liquid.

In the evaporator, the refrigerant takes up heat from the water/glycol mix that is circulating in the ground loop and boils. In this process, the liquid turns to gas and returns to the compressor to begin the cycle again.  This in turn makes the ground loop water cooler that is then pumped around the ground loop in the garden for reheating.