| OCR Text |
Show III The Heat Pump Link To The Solar Future You may not realize it, but if you have a heat pump at home, you've entered the solar era .1 even though your roof may not ill boast a number of solar collec- tors. ( The heat pump is in a sense a solar device, according to the I Air-Conditioning and Refrigera- I tion Institute (ARI), because it il collects "free" heat from the outside air and converts it into heated air for your home. This "free" heat is generated gener-ated and renewed each day X when the sun's rays strike the .i earth and its atmosphere. Thus (X in a sense the earth itself is a "solar collector" and the heat J pump is an efficient means of Ji collecting the heat generated by the sun... Because the heat pump col lects heat from a low tempera- I' ture source (air or water) rather than a high temperature source (fuel combustion), it is becom- II ing an important element in TV ' solar and other types of en- ergyconserving heating sys- 'ems, says ARI. The three major categories are: Air-to-air heat pump. The air-to-air heat pump which flj transfers heat from outdoor air to the air indoors, describes the typical heat pump installed in ' most homes, says ARI. While r the air-to-air heat pump's output fluctuates according to outdoor out-door temperatures, it is capable of reducing electric heating bills by 30 to 50 percent, ARI added. Water source heat pump. J This type of heat pump collects ' heat from water rather than air, I and is typically designed for ,-, 'arge installations that have a 1 dependable source of water I such as a lake, reservoir or well. Since water temperatures j change slowly, particularly in I underground sources, the water source heat pump functions smoothly, it's output doesn't fluctuate according to the outdoor out-door weather. Solar assisted heat pump. For economic reasons, most residential solar heating systems sys-tems are designed to provide only part usually about half of the home's heating needs. Supplementary heat a traditional tradi-tional furnace or heat pump-is pump-is provided. Because it is highly efficient in itself, and because it is capable capa-ble of gathering heat from a low temperature source, the heat pump is compatible with many solar heating systems, explains ARI. While the heat pump is most often installed simply as a back-up heating unit, some manufacturers have modified heat pumps so they are fully integrated in-tegrated into a solar heating system. Most commonly, this type of solar assisted heat pump is connected into the system sys-tem so that it receives heat collected col-lected by solar collectors. Other solar heat pump systems use bypass methods that bring the heat pump "on line" as needed. |
