July 27, 2021
What is a heat pump?An air source heat pump looks like an air conditioning unit on the outside of buildings, and it works a bit like a fridge in reverse, using electricity to extract energy from the outside air to provide heating for homes and hot water.
There are also heat pumps that draw energy from the ground or water.
Because they are extracting heat from the environment – which they can do even at low outside temperatures – they produce around three times the energy they use, making them much more efficient than a gas boiler.
British electricity is increasingly powered by low carbon sources such as wind, making heat pumps a clean alternative to burning gas, while they also cut local air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide that boilers emit.
The main difference is you do not get that immediate boost you can get with gas, when you feel cold and you fire up the boiler.That is because a heat pump heats water in the radiators to a lower temperature than a gas boiler so it warms a house more slowly.But with a heat pump, the system works out the most efficient way to keep the house to the temperature you want it and gets on with it.
