An air-source heat pump can provide efficient heating and cooling for your home. When properly installed, an air-source heat pump can deliver one and a half to three times more heat energy to a home than the electrical energy it consumes. Air source heat pumps (ASHPs) absorb heat from the outside air. This heat can then be used to heat radiators, underfloor heating systems, or warm air convectors and hot water in your home. Heat pumps have some impact on the environment as they need electricity to run, but the heat they extract from the ground, air, or water is constantly being renewed naturally.
A ground source heat pump uses a ground heat exchange loop to tap into this constantly replenished heat store to heat buildings and provide hot water. The technology used is the same as that used in refrigerators. Just as a fridge extracts heat from the food and transfers it into the kitchen, so a ground source heat pump extracts heat from the earth and transfers it into a building.
This set up is called a hybrid heat pump* or a bivalent system. With these systems, most of the time the heat pump will provide all your heating needs and the gas or oil boiler will be switched off. However, on occasions when the heat pump is not able to provide enough heat on its own, such as when outdoor temperatures are very low and your heating demand is high, the fossil fuel boiler turns on.