A heat pump takes energy from the environment (Air, Water or Ground), converts it into heat and releases it at a higher temperature into a cold environment. Though it mainly provides heating to a home via an emitter (radiator, floor heating or fan convectors), it can also produce domestic hot water (DHW) or heat up a pool.
But a heat pump can also work in a reversible version. It is then used to cool the indoor environment, like an air conditioner.
The 3 main families of heat pumps are:
Ground/Ground or Ground/Water heat pumps use a liquid refrigerant to capture the energy from the ground with horizontal collectors only. Glycol water/Water or Glycol water/Glycol water heat pumps use Glycol water with horizontal or vertical collectors.
Once the heat is produced, a heat pump can release it in two different ways and heat the cold environment using several types of emitters:
A heat pump can come as a single unit (“single-unit”), installed outdoors, in two units (“single-split” or “split”) or multiple units (“multi-split”), in which the condenser is placed inside the medium to be heated.
A conventional heat pump consists of 5 elements:
A heat pump draws its source of energy for free from nature. Constantly replenished by the sun, wind and precipitation, the calories taken from the environment (Air, Water or Ground) remain inexhaustible.
A heat pump alone can cover the three main needs of a home, without emitting greenhouse gases.
Combined with a condensing boiler, a hybrid heat pump saves up to 40% energy compared to a conventional boiler.
Because of their performance and operation with renewable energies, tax incentive measures are implemented in some countries to encourage people to purchase them in the best conditions.
Following new European regulations promoting the sale of high-performance heating equipment, the performance of heat pumps is changing: the efficiency of a heat pump long characterised by an instantaneous efficiency called COP (coefficient of performance), is now characterised by a performance that reflects the efficiency of the HP throughout the year. This is known as SCOP (seasonal coefficient of performance) or ηsh (eta) for certain types of heat pumps.
Finally, this new seasonal performance is associated with energy efficiency classes (A +, A, etc.) making it easier to compare HPs with each other for each type of technology.
It is very easy to make the right choice: just compare the products. But when product performance is not certified, this becomes impossible.
Certification makes it possible to compare objectively.
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NF 462 |
NF 414 |
- Coefficient of Performance (COP) |
X |
X |
- Heating capacity |
X |
X |
- Absorbed electric power |
X |
X |
- Gas utilisation efficiency (GUE) |
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X |
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- Heating-up time |
X |
X |
- Reserve capacity |
X |
X |
- Reference hot water temperature |
X |
X |
- Maximum volume of usable hot water or of mitigated water at 40 °C |
X |
X |
- Daily consumption |
X |
X |
- Annual consumption |
X |
X |
- Overall performance coefficient or coefficient of performance in DHW production mode |
X |
X |
- Energy efficiency for water heating (alternating operation) |
X |
X |
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- Reheating time |
X |
X |
- Proportion of renewable energy |
X |
X |
- Sound power level (noise) |
X |
X |
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- Energy efficiency ratio (EER) |
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- Gas utilisation efficiency (GUE) |
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- Cooling power |
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- Absorbed electric power |
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Regulations
Regulations
Regulations
Eurovent heat pumps
Eurovent heat pumps
Eurovent heat pumps