Summary: Ground source heat pumps guide, advantages of ground source heating and disadvantages of ground source heating.
Ground-source heat pumps extract heat from under the surface of the ground outside your property. The heat is collected by a mixture of water and anti-freeze that runs through a loop of pipe buried in the garden. The heat is absorbed into the fluid mixture and pumped through a heat exchanger, which is then pumped into a heat pump compressor. The heat accumulates and increases where it becomes of a temperature useful for central or under-floor heating in the house.
The only energy used is the electricity for powering the pump to move the water into the home. Apart from that, ground-source heat occurs naturally and is a renewable, reliable source of heat all year round. The loops of pipe are usually laid flat under the ground surface; however in properties where the garden is not large enough for this, the pipes may be positioned vertically into the ground up to a depth of 100 metres.
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