In the last few months, heat pumps have been extremely popular. Many companies have been coming up with promotions and product launches for these pumps to attract more customers. Due to the increasing popularity, customers have been intrigued with this technology. Most of these pumps are available at affordable prices. Besides biomass, customers have an alternative to fossil fuel which automatically heats and cools their homes at around half the operating cost of propane or oil. Moreover, since heat pumps run off electricity, it is able to deliver zero net-energy cooling and heating systems by simply adding PV panels to offset the pump load.
How Do Heat Pumps Work?
Most people don’t realize that heat pumps have existed for decades. In fact, they have been the primary means of cooling and heating buildings in other parts of the world outside America. This technology works similar to the one in refrigerators. Heat is concentrated, and moved from one part of the building to another. In a refrigerator, this technology works to gather the heat in food storage area, and dumps it into the kitchen. In modern heat pumps, heat is concentrated from outside in winter, and delivered inside. In the summer season, the technology does the opposite to keep the building cool. Heat is moved from inside to outside. Companies have been installing various ground source heat pumps in the Northeast region for decades. These pumps are able to move heat between the ground and buildings, they tend to be quite expensive. A typical installation may cost between $20,000 to $40,000. However, modern air source pumps don’t require expensive digging or drilling for installation. Thus, they can be easily installed for less than $5,000. These pumps can offer up to 20,000 btu/hr. Still, $8,000 for two systems which can cut your oil bills in half is not bad.