Heat Pumps
A heat pump uses an electrically-driven compressor to operate a refrigeration cycle that extracts heat energy from the outdoor air or from the ground or ground water, and upgrades its temperature to a level high enough to use for space heating. The working fluid boils at a low temperature, absorbing heat in an outdoor heat exchanger, then the resulting vapor is compressed and condenses to liquid form in a condensor inside the building. Heat from the condensor is absorbed by the air in the building (and sometimes also used for domestic hot water). In the summer months the cycle can be reversed to provide air conditioning. Heat pumps may obtain low-grade heat from the outdoor air in mild climates; in areas with average winter temperatures well below freezing, ground source heat pumps extract residual heat stored in the ground at a more constant temperature. This is the main heat pump.
Read more about this topic: Electric Heating, Space Heating
Famous quotes containing the words heat and/or pumps:
“Coal is a portable climate. It carries the heat of the tropics to Labrador and the polar circle; and it is the means of transporting itself whithersoever it is wanted. Watt and Stephenson whispered in the ear of mankind their secret, that a half-ounce of coal will draw two tons a mile, and coal carries coal, by rail and by boat, to make Canada as warm as Calcutta, and with its comfort brings its industrial power.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“the rusty
Pump pumps over your sweating face the clear
Water, cold, so cold! you cup your hands
And gulp from them the dailiness of life.”
—Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)