Preventive Maintenance

An air source heat pump (ASHP) is a heat pump that can absorb heat from air outside a building and release it inside; it uses the same vapor-compression refrigeration process and much the same equipment as an air conditioner, but in the opposite direction. ASHPs are the most common type of heat pump and, usually being smaller, tend to be used to heat individual houses or flats rather than blocks, districts or industrial processes.^[1]

Air-to-air heat pumps provide hot or cold air directly to rooms, but do not usually provide hot water. Air-to-water heat pumps use radiators or underfloor heating to heat a whole house and are often also used to provide domestic hot water.

An ASHP can typically gain 4 kWh thermal energy from 1 kWh electric energy. They are optimized for flow temperatures between 30 and 40 °C (86 and 104 °F), suitable for buildings with heat emitters sized for low flow temperatures. With losses in efficiency, an ASHP can even provide full central heating with a flow temperature up to 80 °C (176 °F).^[2]

As of 2023^[update] about 10% of building heating worldwide is from ASHPs. They are the main way to phase out gas boilers (also known as "furnaces") from houses, to avoid their greenhouse gas emissions.^[3]

Air-source heat pumps are used to move heat between two heat exchangers, one outside the building which is fitted with fins through which air is forced using a fan and the other which either directly heats the air inside the building or heats water which is then circulated around the building through radiators or underfloor heating which releases the heat to the building. These devices can also operate in a cooling mode where they extract heat via the internal heat exchanger and eject it into the ambient air using the external heat exchanger. Some can be used to heat water for washing which is stored in a domestic hot water tank.^[4]

Air-source heat pumps are relatively easy and inexpensive to install, so are the most widely used type. In mild weather, coefficient of performance (COP) may be between 2 and 5, while at temperatures below around −8 °C (18 °F) an air-source heat pump may still achieve a COP of 1 to 4.^[5]

While older air-source heat pumps performed relatively poorly at low temperatures and were better suited for warm climates, newer models with variable-speed compressors remain highly efficient in freezing conditions allowing for wide adoption and cost savings in places like Minnesota and Maine in the United States.^[6]

Air at any natural temperature contains some heat. An air source heat pump transfers some of this from one place to another, for example between the outside and inside of a building.

An air-to air system can be designed to transfer heat in either direction, to heat or cool the interior of the building in winter and summer respectively. Internal ducting may be used to distribute the air.^[7] An air-to-water system only pumps heat inwards, and can provide space heating and hot water.^[8] For simplicity, the description below focuses on use for interior heating.

The technology is similar to a refrigerator or freezer or air conditioning unit: the different effect is due to the location of the different system components. Just as the pipes on the back of a refrigerator become warm as the interior cools, so an ASHP warms the inside of a building whilst cooling the outside air.

The main components of a split-system (called split as there are both inside and outside coils) air source heat pump are:

• An outdoor evaporator heat exchanger coil, which extracts heat from ambient air
• One or more^[9] indoor condenser heat exchanger coils. They transfer the heat into the indoor air, or an indoor heating system such as water-filled radiators or underfloor circuits and a domestic hot water tank.

Less commonly a packaged ASHP has everything outside, with hot (or cold) air sent inside through a duct.^[10] These are also called monobloc and are useful for keeping flammable propane outside the house.^[3]

An ASHP can provide three or four times as much heat as an electric resistance heater using the same amount of electricity.^[11] Burning gas or oil will emit carbon dioxide and also NOx, which can be harmful to health.^[12] An air source heat pump issues no carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide or any other kind of gas. It uses a small amount of electricity to transfer a large amount of heat.

Most ASHPs are reversible and are able to either warm or cool buildings^[13] and in some cases also provide domestic hot water. The use of an air-to-water heat pump for house cooling has been criticised.^[14]

Heating and cooling is accomplished by pumping a refrigerant through the heat pump's indoor and outdoor coils. Like in a refrigerator, a compressor, condenser, expansion valve and evaporator are used to change states of the refrigerant between colder liquid and hotter gas states.

When the liquid refrigerant at a low temperature and low pressure passes through the outdoor heat exchanger coils, ambient heat causes the liquid to boil (change to gas or vapor). Heat energy from the outside air has been absorbed and stored in the refrigerant as latent heat. The gas is then compressed using an electric pump; the compression increases the temperature of the gas.

Inside the building, the gas passes through a pressure valve into heat exchanger coils. There, the hot refrigerant gas condenses back to a liquid and transfers the stored latent heat to the indoor air, water heating or hot water system. The indoor air or heating water is pumped across the heat exchanger by an electric pump or fan.

The cool liquid refrigerant then re-enters the outdoor heat exchanger coils to begin a new cycle. Each cycle usually takes a few minutes.^[11]

Most heat pumps can also operate in a cooling mode where the cold refrigerant is moved through the indoor coils to cool the room air.

As of 2024 tech other than vapour compression is insignificant in the market.^[15]

ASHPs are the most common type of heat pump and, usually being smaller, are generally more suitable to heat individual houses rather than blocks of flats, compact urban districts or industrial processes.^[1] In dense city centres heat networks may be better than ASHP.^[1] Air source heat pumps are used to provide interior space heating and cooling even in colder climates, and can be used efficiently for water heating in milder climates. A major advantage of some ASHPs is that the same system may be used for heating in winter and cooling in summer. Though the cost of installation is generally high, it is less than the cost of a ground source heat pump, because a ground source heat pump requires excavation to install its ground loop. The advantage of a ground source heat pump is that it has access to the thermal storage capacity of the ground which allows it to produce more heat for less electricity in cold conditions.

Home batteries can mitigate the risk of power cuts and like ASHPs are becoming more popular.^[16] Some ASHPs can be coupled to solar panels as primary energy source, with a conventional electric grid as backup source.^{[citation needed]}

Thermal storage solutions incorporating resistance heating can be used in conjunction with ASHPs. Storage may be more cost-effective if time of use electricity rates are available. Heat is stored in high density ceramic bricks contained within a thermally-insulated enclosure;^[17] storage heaters are an example. ASHPs may also be paired with passive solar heating. Thermal mass (such as concrete or rocks) heated by passive solar heat can help stabilize indoor temperatures, absorbing heat during the day and releasing heat at night, when outdoor temperatures are colder and heat pump efficiency is lower.

Good home insulation is important.^[18] As of 2023^[update] ASHPs are bigger than gas boilers and need more space outside, so the process is more complex and can be more expensive than if it was possible to just remove a gas boiler and install an ASHP in its place.^[3][19] If running costs are important choosing the right size is important because an ASHP which is too large will be more expensive to run.^[20]

It can be more complicated to retrofit conventional heating systems that use radiators/radiant panels, hot water baseboard heaters, or even smaller diameter ducting, with ASHP-sourced heat. The lower heat pump output temperatures means radiators (and possibly pipes) may have to be replaced with larger sizes, or a low temperature underfloor heating system installed instead.^[21]

Alternatively, a high temperature heat pump can be installed and existing heat emitters can be retained, however as of 2023^[update] these heat pumps are more expensive to buy and run so may only be suitable for buildings which are hard to alter or insulate, such as some large historic houses.^[22]

ASHP are claimed to be healthier than fossil-fuelled heating such as gas heaters by maintaining a more even temperature and avoiding harmful fumes risk.^[18] By filtering the air and reducing humidity in hot humid summer climates, they are also said to reduce dust, allergens, and mold, which poses a health risk.^[23]

Operation of normal ASHPs is generally not recommended below −10 °C.^[24] However, ASHPs designed specifically for very cold climates (in the US, these are certified under Energy Star^[25]) can extract useful heat from ambient air as cold as −30 °C (−22 °F) but electric resistance heating may be more efficient below −25 °C.^[24] This is made possible by the use of variable-speed compressors, powered by inverters.^[25] Although air source heat pumps are less efficient than well-installed ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) in cold conditions, air source heat pumps have lower initial costs and may be the most economic or practical choice.^[26] A hybrid system, with both a heat pump and an alternative source of heat such as a fossil fuel boiler, may be suitable if it is impractical to properly insulate a large house.^[27] Alternatively multiple heat pumps or a high temperature heat pump may be considered.^[27]

In some weather conditions condensation will form and then freeze onto the coils of the heat exchanger of the outdoor unit, reducing air flow through the coils. To clear this condensation, the unit operates a defrost cycle, switching to cooling mode for a few minutes and heating the coils until the ice melts. Air-to-water heat pumps use heat from the circulating water for this purpose, which results in a small and probably undetectable drop in water temperature;^[28] for air-to-air systems, heat is either taken from the air in the building or using an electrical heater.^[29] Some air-to-air systems simply stop the operation of the fans of both units and switch to cooling mode so that the outdoor unit returns to being the condenser such that it heats up and defrosts.

As discussed above, typical air-source heat pumps (ASHPs) struggle to perform efficiently at low temperatures. Ground-source heat pumps (GSHPs), which transfer heat to or from the ground using fluid-filled underground pipes (ground heat exchangers or GHEs),^[30] offer higher efficiency but are expensive to install due to labor and material costs.^[31] A ground source air heat pump (GSAHP)—or water-to-refrigerant type GSHPs ^[32]—presents a viable alternative, integrating elements of ASHPs and water-to-water GSHPs. A GSAHP has three components: a GHE (vertical or horizontal), a heat pump, and a fan coil unit (FCU).

The heat pump unit contains an evaporator, compressor, condenser, and expansion valve.^[33] Thermal energy is extracted from the ground through an antifreeze solution in the GHE, transferred to the refrigerant in the heat pump, and compressed before being delivered to a refrigerant-to-air heat exchanger. A fan then circulates the heated air indoors.

Unlike conventional GSHPs, GSAHPs eliminate the need for hydronic systems (e.g., underfloor heating systems or wall-mounted radiators), relying instead on fans to distribute heat directly into indoor air. This reduces installation costs and complexity while retaining the efficiency benefits of GSHPs in cold climates. By extracting heat from stable ground temperatures, GSAHPs outperform ASHPs in low temperatures, achieving higher efficiency and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Installation costs for GSAHPs are intermediate between ASHP and GSHP systems; while they eliminate the need for indoor pipework, they still require drilling or digging for the GHE.

Electricity consumption drives the climate impact of heat pump systems. GSAHPs demonstrate a coefficient of performance (COP) approximately 35% higher than ASHPs under certain conditions,^[32] due to the stable ground temperatures they leverage. Additionally, the operation phase accounts for 84% of its climate impacts over a heat pump's life cycle,^[34] highlighting the importance of efficiency (i.e., higher COPs) in reducing emissions. The global warming potential (GWP) of GSAHPs is nearly 40% lower than ASHPs,^[31] further demonstrating their environmental advantages in cold climates. This efficiency advantage is especially pronounced during winter when ASHP efficiency typically declines. GSAHPs consume less electricity for heating, resulting in lower greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in regions with high heating demands and carbon-intensive electricity grids.

An air source heat pump requires an outdoor unit containing moving mechanical components including fans which produce noise. Modern devices offer schedules for silent mode operation with reduced fan speed. This will reduce the maximum heating power but can be applied at mild outdoor temperatures without efficiency loss. Acoustic enclosures are another approach to reduce the noise in a sensitive neighbourhood. In insulated buildings, operation can be paused at night without significant temperature loss. Only at low temperatures, frost protection forces operation after a few hours. Proper siting is also important.^[35]

In the United States, the allowed night-time noise level is 45 A-weighted decibels (dBA).^[36] In the UK the limit is set at 42 dB measured from the nearest neighbour^[37] according to the MCS 020 standard^[38] or equivalent.^[39] In Germany the limit in residential areas is 35, which is usually measured by European Standard EN 12102.^[40]

Another feature of air source heat pumps (ASHPs) external heat exchangers is their need to stop the fan from time to time for a period of several minutes in order to get rid of frost that accumulates in the outdoor unit in the heating mode. After that, the heat pump starts to work again. This part of the work cycle results in two sudden changes of the noise made by the fan. The acoustic effect of such disruption is especially powerful in quiet environments where background night-time noise may be as low as 0 to 10dBA. This is included in legislation in France. According to the French concept of noise nuisance, "noise emergence" is the difference between ambient noise including the disturbing noise, and ambient noise without the disturbing noise.^[41][42] By contrast a ground source heat pump has no need for an outdoor unit with moving mechanical components.

The efficiency of air source heat pumps is measured by the coefficient of performance (COP). A COP of 4 means the heat pump produces 4 units of heat energy for every 1 unit of electricity it consumes. Within temperature ranges of −3 °C (27 °F) to 10 °C (50 °F), the COP for many machines is fairly stable. Approximately TheoreticalMaxCOP = (desiredIndoorTempC + 273) ÷ (desiredIndoorTempC - outsideTempC).^{[citation needed][43][better source needed]}

In mild weather with an outside temperature of 10 °C (50 °F), the COP of efficient air source heat pumps ranges from 4 to 6.^[44] However, on a cold winter day, it takes more work to move the same amount of heat indoors than on a mild day.^[45] The heat pump's performance is limited by the Carnot cycle and will approach 1.0 as the outdoor-to-indoor temperature difference increases, which for most air source heat pumps happens as outdoor temperatures approach −18 °C (0 °F).^{[citation needed]}Heat pump construction that enables carbon dioxide as a refrigerant may have a COP of greater than 2 even down to −20 °C, pushing the break-even figure downward to −30 °C (−22 °F).^{[citation needed]} A ground source heat pump has comparatively less of a change in COP as outdoor temperatures change, because the ground from which they extract heat has a more constant temperature than outdoor air.

The design of a heat pump has a considerable impact on its efficiency. Many air source heat pumps are designed primarily as air conditioning units, mainly for use in summer temperatures. Designing a heat pump specifically for the purpose of heat exchange can attain greater COP and an extended life cycle. The principal changes are in the scale and type of compressor and evaporator.

Seasonally adjusted heating and cooling efficiencies are given by the heating seasonal performance factor (HSPF) and seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER) respectively. In the US the legal minimum efficiency is 14 or 15 SEER and 8.8 HSPF.^[25]

Variable speed compressors are more efficient because they can often run more slowly and because the air passes through more slowly giving its water more time to condense, thus more efficient as drier air is easier to cool. However, they are more expensive and more likely to need maintenance or replacement.^[23] Maintenance such as changing filters can improve performance by 10% to 25%.^[46]