How Does a Heat Pump Work

A heat pump is an energy saving home appliance, installed to heat the rooms in winter and at the same time, cool them in summer. Briefly speaking, it is a multipurpose device, useful for all seasons. The major advantage of a heat pump is its energy efficiency, which is comparatively very less than the regular home cooling and heating systems. Also, with heat pumps, you don't need to install separate furnace and air conditioner to maintain comfortable temperature in homes.

Based on the source utilized for heating purpose, heat pumps are basically classified into two types - air source and geothermal heat pumps. In the former type, heat from the outside air is drawn to warm up the rooms; while heat from underground is used in the latter configuration. In each of these processes, a heat pump consumes very low amount of energy. The following information explains on how does a heat pump work in cold weather and reverse the same in hot weather.

How Heat Pumps Work?

Most people have a confusion between 'how does a geothermal heat pump work' and 'how does an electric heat pump work'. It is to be borne in mind that all types of heat pumps work in the same phenomenon i.e., transfer of heat from one environment to another. Thus, instead of burning fuel to warm rooms, heat pumps transfer or carry heat energy from a source (air source or geothermal) to a sink (home). Consequently, the energy requirement is much lower in case of heat pumps than the traditional appliances.

Though the detailed machinery differs from model to another, some of the basic parts of a air-source heat pump are fans, evaporator (outdoor coils), refrigerant, condenser (indoor coils), compressor and reversing valve. In addition to these components, a geothermal heat pump comprises buried pipes, flow unit and indoor equipment. Coming to the working principle of heat pumps, it is more or less similar to home cooling system (or air conditioners). Hence, if you have any idea regarding working of a refrigerator or air conditioner, you will surely understand on how does a heat pump work, which is discussed below:

Heat Pump Working in Winter
Air from outdoors (air source heat pump) or ground (geothermal heat pump) is passed to the evaporator that transfers heat to the refrigerant. The refrigerant after absorbing heat from the coils get converted into vapor, which is then passed to the condenser placed in the indoors. The air inside the rooms is heated after coming in contact with condenser coils. This heated air is distributed though home vents and make the rooms warm and comfortable in cold weather.

Heat Pump Working in Summer
In hot weather conditions, the reversing valve in the heat pump makes the cold refrigerant flow in an opposite manner. The device now releases heat indoors, instead of pumping from outdoors or ground. Heat released inside the rooms is absorbed by the refrigerant, which travels to the outside and disperse heat. The refrigerant then cools down and flows back to indoors to take up more heat. This way, the indoor temperature is maintained low during summer.

So, by now you must have understood regarding how does a heat pump work to heat and cool homes. Depending upon machine sophistication, heat pump installation may cost somewhere around a few hundred dollars to more than a thousand dollars. And if you contact a reliable contractor, complete installation of a heat pump will require not more than one day. Considering its low energy consumption, heat pump is probably the best appliance to solve energy crisis problem, faced by the world today.