Air Source heat pumps are an efficient way to heat your home using
electricity. Even just connected to the UK national grid their carbon
emissions are many times lower than heating with gas, and this
obviously improves when run on a renewable electricity supply.
An airsource heat
pump is installed outside your house with enough space for good
airflow around the unit.
The heat that they
pull from the air is there because of the warmth of the sun and so
this is the ultimate source of the heat. An airsource heat pump uses
electricity to run a compressor/pump (like your fridge has) and to
power a fan to blow lots of air over a big heat exchange radiator
(like a car has). The Coefficient of Performance (or COP) is a
measure of the efficiency of the heat pump and is the ratio between
kWh of electricity consumed and kWh of heat produced. So a COP of 2.5
means that for each kWh of electricity used the heat pump will
produce 2.5 kWh of heat.
