Are Heat Pumps Green

Whilst the heat pump is a very versatile piece of equipment which can both heat and also cool a space. Could this versatility mask a more sinister background? So is the heat pump a green bit of kit………….

Unfortunately the short answer is ‘No’. An Orpington Plumber knows how a heat pump operates. This is not down to the heat pumps themselves, rather than the fact that they operate with mains electricity. The problem is that the power taken from the national grid to run them is supplied from clapped out coal, oil and gas fired power stations. Not only are they burning fossil fuels but they burn them in an inefficient manner. By the time it reaches you it has dropped in efficiency by 20% This makes the carbon footprint 17 which in ecological terms is huge! By being super efficient all that a heat pump can do is get the electricity carbon footprint down to a size that is comparable to that of natural gas. If you buy your electricity however from a green supplier or generate your own via photovoltaic solar panels (PV) ( Orpington Plumbers can install heat pumps) heat pumps suddenly take on a very different persona. You can’t use the PV panels directly because they tend to work best in summer when the pump isn’t working, and they cant supply the starting load needed by the pump. However it is possible to cover the costs of running the heat pump by selling your voltaic electricity back to the national grid, and you don’t need an enormous amount of PV panels to achieve this aim. If you manage this then not are your heating costs zero but you can hug a tree with a very clear conscience.
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