Heat pumps offer an eco-friendly alternative for keeping your home warm all year long, using renewable energy sources and helping reduce carbon footprint while potentially earning income through RHI schemes.
Glasgow University has developed a revolutionary heat pump which could save households money and contribute towards reaching net zero emissions targets. Their flexible solution seeks to address current heat pumps which have their heating capacity or efficiency affected by cold weather conditions.
1. Energy Savings
Heat pumps provide safe, economical energy solutions to warm homes and provide hot water. In contrast to finite fossil fuels like gas and coal, heat pumps play an essential part of Scotland’s push towards net zero emissions economy.
With renewable electricity, heat pumps use to extract heat from the air and transfer it to radiators, under-floor systems, taps and hot air systems, significantly reducing carbon dioxide emissions and running costs. Although a small amount of electricity may still be necessary to operate this pump compared to traditional electric heating systems.
Engineers at Glasgow University have designed a novel heat pump prototype which may offer significant efficiency gains over current devices. Their work, published in Communications Engineering, uses an air-source heat pump with thermal energy storage tank.
2. Reduced Carbon Footprint
Heat pumps use renewable electricity as their power source, significantly lowering their carbon footprint compared to gas boilers. According to WWF’s latest report, electric heat pumps offer one of the quickest and cheapest ways for most Scottish households to reach net zero goals by 2030.
Hillfoot Drive residents in Glasgow have been taking advantage of an industrial-sized air source heat pump developed by Glasgow Housing Association with energy consultants WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff and heating manufacturer Star Renewable Energy to receive affordable low carbon heating. This project marks a greener future for high rise flats.
An air-to-water heat pump takes advantage of energy present in outdoor air by amplifying it and distributing it via central heating system for radiators and underfloor heating systems. This type of heat pump differs from air-to-air models which tend to be found more commonly in homes that already possess an existing warm air distribution system.
3. Longer Lifespan
Heat pumps generate much less carbon emissions than traditional gas boilers and require much less maintenance, both of which are time and cost-consuming to keep operational.
Air source heat pumps, the most prevalent choice in homes today, extract and amplified heat from the atmosphere before disseminating it to radiators, underfloor systems and hot water outlets. Ground-source heat pumps use pipes buried underground as sources of heating power for homes.
Queen’s Quay district heating system employs both types of pumps, with ammonia as its refrigerant of choice, which has no global warming potential (GWP). They’re powered by river water’s high temperature which helps lower greenhouse gas emissions in Glasgow’s city center – an impressive demonstration of low carbon heating solutions used in urban settings.
4. Increased Comfort
Heat pumps use sustainable and cost-saving energy sources to warm homes and provide hot water services. Heat Pumps play an integral part of Scotland’s efforts towards net zero carbon emissions.
Air source heat pumps harness energy found naturally in your home’s air, even during times of low temperature, to amplify it and deliver it directly to radiators and underfloor heating systems. They require only small amounts of electricity – which could come from renewable resources like green power.
Join Easy Heat Systems and M-Four for an educational bus tour to the Green Street district heating system in Springburn, Glasgow to gain more insights into how heat pumps can combat fuel poverty and emissions in social housing.
5. Increased Value
Heat pumps use relatively minimal electricity consumption and harness low-temperature sources such as air to harness their energy and convert it for home heating, creating an excellent alternative to traditional gas boilers that may significantly cut energy costs.
Finding a highly rated installer with many positive reviews on Trustpilot is the surest way to guarantee you get value for your money. They will ensure your heat pump system is installed professionally and offer advice about which solution would best fit into your home environment.
WWF Scotland and UK Governments should expedite their roll out of networked ground source heat pumps that mimic existing gas grids to replace fossil fuel central heating with networked ground source heat pumps that replicate them, thus cutting energy bills for households while helping Scotland meet its target of carbon neutrality by 2050.
