Heat Pumps

A heat pump moves heat from one space to another. Right now, there are one or more heat pumps in your own home. They go by the names of a refrigerator, freezer or an air conditioner.

Think about what they all do. All three products move heat from one space to another. In the case of refrigerators or freezers, they move heat out of the fridge or freezer cabinet into your kitchen and cool your food in the process. In the case of the air conditioner, the heat is pumped from inside your home to the outside air, cooling your home. So heat pumps are great at cooling spaces, but they can also heat.

A reverse-cycle air conditioner pumps heat from the outside air into your home in the form of hot air. A heat pump hot water system pumps heat from the outside air (or water, or ground) and uses it to heat water. A heat pump is very economical as it uses little energy to capture a lot of energy. A heat pump using 1 kW of electricity could be heating as much water as 4 kW element. Technically, we’d call that a Coefficient of Performance (COP) of 4 but financially, we’d call it a saving of 75%. Heat pump hot water systems can save you a lot of money and also greatly reduce your carbon footprint.