Abstract
Heat pump deserves the name of eco-innovation. It uses ‘free energy’ - warmth collected in the soil or in the air to provide heating and cooling. There are two main types of heat pumps – air source heat pump and ground source heat pump. How do they work? What are the benefits of each system? How do they compare? First of all, questions like “what is heat pump, how does it work, what are ASHPs and GSHPs” will be answered. Then a detailed comparison between ASHPs and GSHPs will be carried out, from technological parameters to social, practical, economical parameters. Finally, the conclusions are drawn from these parameters as to decide which kind of heat pump is better off under different conditions.
Highlights
Ground Source heat pumps (GSHPs) have been in use since late 1940s, they use the constant temperature of the earth as the exchange medium instead of the outside air temperature
The operating temperatures of the vapor-compression refrigeration cycle are established by the temperature Tc to be maintained in the cold region and the temperature Th of the warm region to which heat is discharged; the refrigerant temperature in the evaporator must be less than Tc and the refrigerant temperature in the condenser must be greater than Th to allow heat transferring (Figure 2)
For ASHPs, it is very simple to install but for GSHPs, since earth connections in a GSHP system are usually very difficult to reach after installation, the materials and workmanship must be of the highest quality, which in some cases, may block the application of GSHPs
Summary
The physical law tells us that heat normally flows from a warmer medium to a colder one. Can we move heat from our cooler house and dump it to a higher outside environment in summer? Can we extract heat from a lower temperature outside, to our warmer rooms in winter? The heat pump does so by essentially “pumping” heat up the temperature scale, transferring it from a cold material to a warmer one by adding energy, usually in the form of electricity. The most common type of heat pump is the air-source heat pump, which transfers heat between indoor and the outside air. Ground Source heat pumps (GSHPs) have been in use since late 1940s, they use the constant temperature of the earth as the exchange medium instead of the outside air temperature
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