Comparing Air Source Heat Pumps, Ground Source Heat Pumps and Water Source Heat Pumps

New energy has developed rapidly in recent years, and many people show great interest in this. In this article, we will compare and distinguish air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps and water source heat pumps, which are of great interest and most concern to us. 

Air Source Heat Pumps

Air source heat pump utilizes the energy in the ubiquitous air as the main power, and drives the compressor to run through a small amount of electricity to realize energy transfer. Air source heat pumps do not need complicated configuration, expensive water intake, recharge or soil heat exchanger systems and special machine rooms. They can gradually reduce the emission of pollutants to the atmosphere caused by traditional heating, and ensure heating efficiency while taking into account the purpose of energy saving and environmental protection.

Ground Source Heat Pumps

Ground source heat pump utilizes shallow land energy which transfers from low-grade heat energy to high-grade heat energy by inputting a small amount of high-grade energy (such as electricity). Geothermal heat pump belongs to a type of heating and air conditioning system which uses the shallow geothermal resources on the earth surface as the cold and heat source. Shallow surface geothermal resources (also called geothermal energy) refer to the low-temperature potential heat energy stored in the surface soil, groundwater, rivers and lakes, which absorbs solar energy and geothermal energy. 

The shallow layer of the earth's surface is a huge solar collector, which collects 47% of the solar energy, more than 500 times the energy that human beings use every year. Geothermal energy is not limited by region, resources and so on. And it is really huge, wide and ubiquitous. This kind of renewable energy stored in the shallow layer of the earth's surface is nearly infinite, which makes it become a form of clean renewable energy.

Water Source Heat Pumps

Water source heat pump is an air-conditioning technology that uses solar energy resources stored in earth water as cold and heat sources for energy conversion. By inputting a small amount of high-grade energy (such as electric power), the transfer of low-temperature thermal energy to high-temperature energy can be realized. Water is used as heat source of heat pump heating in winter and cold source of air conditioning in summer. That is to say, heat in buildings is "taken out" in summer and released into water. Because of the low temperature of water source, heat can be efficiently taken away to achieve the purpose of indoor cooling in summer. In winter, heat energy is "extracted" from water source by water source heat pump units and sent to buildings for house heating. Shallow water sources on the earth's surface (generally less than 1,000 meters), such as groundwater, surface rivers, lakes and oceans, absorb considerable radiation energy from the sun into the earth, and the temperature of water sources is generally very stable. 

Above are the heat sources and working principles of the three heat pump products, and following are their operating conditions.

Air source heat pumps are suitable for places with air. Based on the current technology, they can be used in areas above minus 25℃ for hot water, heating and cooling. 

Ground source heat pumps are suitable for single villas or villas with gardens, because the installation of ground source heat pumps needs to drill wells. And even vertical closed drilling requires a large area. In addition, whether ground source heat pumps can be used or not should be based on geological survey.

Water source heat pumps are suitable for areas with abundant water resources, such as municipal domestic wastewater, industrial wastewater, mine wastewater, oilfield wastewater and cooling water of thermal power plants, which are discharged after utilization. Natural water resources are not the best choice for water source heat pumps.