PlumbSet Heat Pumps

Heat Pumps

There are many differing views on the effectiveness and appropriateness of the use of heat pumps in the UK. Unfortunately there are some very disappointed people who have been misadvised by their suppliers! Happily, there are a lot of very pleased customers too!

We will only recommend a heat pump solution that is right for your home, office or factory unit. The secret of a good heat pump installation in the UK is of course, correct and appropriate system design. For example, this might mean making sure that the heating and hot water system is not entirely reliant on the heat pump and that another heat source such as a traditional boiler is used to top up the heat that your house requires. In most cases, the outdated design of our buildings along with our unpredictable weather patterns, dictates a dual heat source or 'Bivalent' solution.

We have designed a number of solutions to help overcome these challenges and some components (such as heat stores) are made to our specification to overcome the problems associated with using 'off the shelf' items which are not optimised for a system designed for use in the UK.

Air Source Heat Pump

An air source heat pump converts heat contained within ambient air, into heat energy - which can then be used to provide both heating and hot water. Due to the fact it uses heat from the air provided by the Sun, it is classified as a renewable energy source.

Aerona air source heat pump Air source heat pumps will continue to extract heat from air until the air temperature falls to -15°C. There are two main types, air-to-water and air-to-air. An air-to-water system distributes heat through water; such as in a central heating system. Air-to-air systems are more commonly found in commercial installations.

For domestic use, we recommend the Grant Aerona range of air source heat pumps, because they have been designed by Grant specifically for the UK market and they are manufactured to a high standard.

Ground Source Heat Pump

A ground source heat pump extracts heat stored in the ground, either via a set of pipes buried in the ground, or submerged in a large water volume (such as a lake) or from a specially prepared borehole. That heat is then used to heat the water in the heating and the hot water system.

One of the major advantages of a ground source heat pump is that the temperature underground stays fairly constant; meaning the ground source heat pump performs well throughout the year.

We recommend Kensa Compact ground source heat pumps, because as the only UK manufacturer to make a complete range of ground source heat pumps for the UK market, they are clearly the UK ground source heat pump specialists.