Heat pump essay

During summertime the heat pump can be operated in reverse, as a cooler (air conditioner). So the operation is similar, except that instead of gaining heat from the ground, the anti-freeze solution (which now acts as the cooling medium) “loses” heat to the ground.

An excellent reference explaining the thermodynamic details of how heat pumps work is: The Oak Ridge Heat Pump Models: I. A Steady-State Computer Design Model for Air-to-Air Heat Pumps, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, S. K. Fischer, C. K. Rice, August 1983.

To start off, let's first discuss the basics of how heat pumps work. A heat pump is a device that “transports” heat energy from one place to another place. This is the basic feature of how heat pumps work.

35,000 BTU = 10.26 kWh. To produce 10.26 kWh of heat energy, the amount of electrical energy input needed by the heat pump is 10.26/COP (e.g. for a COP = 3, the energy input is 10.26/3 = 3.4 kWh). The associated electrical cost is then EC = (10.26/COP) × (cost per kWh of electricity in your area).