An air to water heat pump is considered as eco-friendly heating for the residential home today. Ever wondered if these heat pumps can be used in your home?

An air to water heat pump is one of more unusual type of heating systems available on the market today. An air to water heat pump is considered by many to be one of more Eco-friendly heating and cooling systems available for the residential home.

Air to Water Heat Pump Technology

All heat pumps, no matter their heat source or internal configuration, all use the same principle of thermodynamics: heat transfer. A heat pump is able to extract heat from one material or source and then move or transfer it to another.

It absorbs the temperature differences by compressing and pressurizing a heat sensitive gas which in turn can transfer the warmth into the home. As an air conditioner, a heat pump simply reverses the process, and uses the heat sensitive gas to absorb heat from inside the home and releases it into the outdoors, which in turn cools off the house.

The most common types of heat pumps can pull heat from many different sources such as the air, underground springs or pools or even the earth itself. In air source units (the standard at most homes) the heat is pulled from the surrounding atmosphere. Ground source heat pumps have coils driven underground to take advantage of the constant temperatures of either the earth or hidden pools of water.

Ground source units, while growing for common for commercial or industrial buildings, are some of the most efficient heat and cooling systems currently available. But these units need extensive excavation in order to work, which can make them difficult to retrofit into a home.

This is where an air to water heat pump has a unique advantage. The primary heat source is still the air but instead of transferring the absorbed heat to an air handler which would normally circulate warmed air throughout the house, it used all captured heat to warm water.

The resulting hot water can be used in hydronic floor or wall panels. Hydronic or liquid-based panels are a form of radiant heat. Radiant is the type of warmth you feel when standing out under strong sunlight; warmth without direct contact. Unlike direct heat from oil, gas or electrical heaters, radiant heat from an air to water heat pump is renewable and extremely efficient.

Also any left over left heat can be used to either fill a traditional hot water storage tank or can be used to operate a “tank-less” hot water system that can create hot water “on demand” that is hot enough to be used in for bathing, washing dishes, clothes or housekeeping.

Air to water heat pumps are often designed as ductless split heating and cooling systems, so that their compact size and easy installation makes them a good choice for retrofitting an older home or updating a single room.

Several air to water heat pumps can be easily run using the electricity from a small rooftop solar cell array. And even if it used traditional grid electricity, the small trickle it uses is very affordable. But it’s this use of an alternative electrical source that makes them ideal for use in highly urban areas where this fossil fuel can be expensive or in rural area where grid power lines may be too far away for easy connections.

While an air to water heat pump is the not the complete solution to lower greenhouse gases or less pollution, their increased use does allow people with concerns for the environment to finally have an efficient heat pump system that treads lightly on the earth.