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How does a Heat Pump work?
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A Heat Pump extracts freely available heat energy from the outside air and
transfers or ''pumps'' it back inside your home. The result – you feel warm inside.
During the summer the Heat Pump reverses this operation extracting heat energy from the air
inside your home and pumping it outside. The end effect - you feel cooler inside!
The most familiar application of Heat Pump technology is the domestic refrigerator.
Heat inside the chiller compartment is absorbed and released outside through the fridges
outer skin. This is why the sides and back of the fridge feel warm.
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The vapour compression cycle.
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Like a fridge, Mitsubishi Electric’s Heat Pump technology transfers heat energy from
place to place using the vapour compression cycle.
A Heat Pump exploits the fact that a fluid’s boiling point is affected by pressure. Lowering
the pressure lowers the temperature at which the fluid evaporates, changing from liquid to
gas: Raising the pressure raises the temperature at which it condenses, changing from gas to liquid. |
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- Refrigerant in the evaporator is colder than the heat source. This causes the heat to move from the heat
source to the refrigerant as it evaporates.
- This vapour moves to the compressor where its temperature and pressure are increased.
- The hot vapour now enters the condenser where it rejects heat as it condenses.
- The refrigerant then moves to the expansion valve; drops in temperature and pressure; then returns to the evaporator.
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There are two key parts to a Heat Pump system.
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There is an outside unit housing the compressor that is similar to the exterior back
of your fridge. It draws heat energy from the outside air in even the coldest of weather.
That heat energy is then transferred inside the home using a refrigerant process through
a piping system powered by an indoor fan unit that is typically mounted to the wall.
This is why the system is also often referred to as a Heat Pump rather than air conditioning.
Both are in fact the same. Similarly, in summer, the reverse happens. Heat energy is drawn
from the interior room and expelled by the outside unit. |
