The very latest central heating technology, Geothermal, or ground source heat pumps, are extremely efficient, providing low running costs, whatever the weather.
DeLonghi Geothermal Heat Pumps rely on the fact that the earth stays warm underground throughout the winter. The warmth is extracted either using a long coiled pipe buried 2m below the surface, or directly from well water. A heat pump linked to the coil boosts the temperature so that it can be used to heat water which is transferred through the home for underfloor or radiator heating, and domestic hot water. The system can be reversed for cooling in the summer by pumping heat from the house and dumping it underground.
Because the temperature underground is relatively constant the heat pumps always have a high co-efficient of performance (COP), greater than 4:1, which means for every 1 kWh of electricity used, 4 kWh of heat are produced for heating the house or hot water.
Benefits:
- High COP, so running costs and resultant CO2 emissions are very low.
- No need for any external equipment such as fan units or fuel tanks. This means it is very quiet in operation and visually unobtrusive.
- Ground coil buried to a depth of 2m means it is possible to plant trees and use the land above the coil.
- Water is used in the ground loop pipes (which have a 50 year life expectancy), so there is no danger of refrigerants leaking into the ground.
System Options
Ground source heat pumps come either as medium temperature, or high temperature. Only the high temperature models can be used with radiators. On some models the heat dumped during summer cooling can be used to heat domestic hot water, making this process highly efficient. All geothermal heat pumps include a circulating pump for the heating, and may also include pressure relief valves, expansion tanks and other components depending on system configuration. The systems are custom designed for each application. All geothermal heatpumps are on indent order only. Larger heat output models require 3-phase electricity.
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