Thermal Heat Pumps for the Home What are they? Heat pumps are
electrically-powered devices that provide central heating and
hot water, using much less energy than conventional boilers or
room heaters. How do they work? Heat pumps use the same
mechanism as a refigerator – just as the fridge takes heat out
of the food inside and warms up the room it's in, a heat pump
extracts heat from the ground or the outside air and warms the
house. A pump connected to the ground is known, unsurprisingly,
as a Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP for short) and the other type
as an Air Source Heat Pump or ASHP. The real benefit comes from
the fact that the ground or air warms up again more quickly than
the pump system cools it down, so you can keep extracting free
energy continuously – usually you get at least three times as
much energy back in heat as you have used in electricity. While
an ASHP simply draws fresh air in with a fan then blows it out
again, GSHPs are connected to pipes which carry a circulating
water-based mixture w