Pump up the heat!
Heat pumps are enjoying a surge in popularity in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, where they are playing a key role in decarbonizing air conditioning systems, achieving cost parity with the gas boilers they are increasingly replacing.
What is a heat pump? Basically, it’s an upside-down air conditioning unit that transfers heat from outside into a building through evaporation, compression, condensation and expansion, a process known as a refrigeration cycle. The development of more environmentally friendly gases has also made it possible to obtain greater efficiency in the cycle and produce increasingly lighter machines, to the extent that they are often installed in EVs for more efficient air conditioning. By taking advantage of temperature exchange, the heat pump generates considerable savings compared to heating water via a boiler. Why? Simply, because heat pumps transfer heat rather than create it.
Heat pumps are now an essential feature of a new constructions, where they are combined with underfloor heating for even greater efficiency. When used to replace gas boilers, they fulfil a double objective: on the one hand, saving money by eliminating gas bills — completely disengaging from increasingly expensive and unpredictable gas suppliers — while reducing emissions and thus giving homes a better energy rating, which increase their value.
