Have you ever wondered how a heat pump works? The basics of its operation can be easily understood. As we all know, the heat pump system is used for both cooling and heating purpose. Refrigerators, air conditioners etc. use heat pumps for controlling the temperature. The heat pump consists of three main parts; the heat source system, the heat pump and the heat distribution system. The refrigerant is the heart of the heat pump system. It is responsible for transferring and transporting the heat. It collects heat from the environment and transfers it to the heating system or vice versa. The heat pump works by exploiting the volatile evaporating and condensing property of the refrigerant.
The liquid refrigerant is very volatile and can even evaporate at sub-zero temperature. When used for heating purpose, it collects heat from environment through an outer coil or evaporator. This turns the liquid refrigerator into gaseous form and the stored heat is transferred to the compressor. The compressor also produces a significant proportion of heat which can be recovered and used, thereby reducing the release of CO2 and running cost. The heated refrigerant is then transferred to a heat exchanger, called condenser. It flows through the heating system; consequently heating the destination. The process in addition cools the refrigerant into liquid form. It passes through pressure lowering device called expansion valve. The lower pressure, liquid refrigerant once again passes through the evaporator and the cycle is repeated
While using for cooling purpose, the outdoor coil or evaporator acts as a condenser and indoor coil which was used for heating, acts as evaporator. As before, the evaporator collets heat but this time from inside the enclosed space and transfer it to the condenser outside which rejects it into the air. The cycle is continued as before in the heating process.