MyWarm

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Heat pumps do not generate heat, they move it.

It works a bit like a fridge in reverse and can be confussing to understand.

A heat pump takes heat from one place (outside air, the ground, or water) and moves it into your home. Even cold air contains heat.
The system gathers that heat, boosts it, and releases it indoors.

The Basics

Heat pumps work like a refrigerator in reverse.
Instead of removing heat from inside a fridge (the food), they move heat from outside (air, ground, water) into your home. The magic comes from the use of refrigirants.

The system uses electricity to run a refrigeration cycle that:

Distributes heat through low temperature heating systems such as:

  • Radiators
  • Underfloor heating
  • Fan convectors

These systems provide steady, comfortable warmth throughout the home

How it actually warms your house.

  1. Heat is collected from outside (air, ground, or water).
  2. That heat is compressed (squeezed)to raise its temperature.
  3. The warmed heat is then transfered to water and pumped around our heating systems like a normal boiler.
  4. The cycle repeats, quietly and continuously.

You may ask how can heat energy be in cold water, the ground or cold air?

Well thats the confussing part that can be hard to understand.
Heat is always around us, even when it feels cold.
The air, the ground and water all contain natural heat energy because they’ve absorbed warmth from the sun and the earth over time.
Even on a chilly day, there is still energy in the air, it’s just at a low temperature.
Modern heating systems like heat pumps don’t create heat from scratch; they simply collect this existing, low-level warmth and concentrate it to a higher temperature that can be used to heat your home. So instead of making heat, we’re just capturing and upgrading the heat that’s already there.

Because it’s moving heat rather than creating it,
it uses much less energy than traditional heating when designed and specified properly.

The Different Types of Heat Pumps.

If you’re considering replacing your current heating and hot water system with a renewable alternative, it’s essential to be aware that this can be a significant investment. In many cases, it involves a partial or complete system upgrade, as heat emitters and pipework often (though not always) need to be updated to achieve optimal flow rates.

To determine if a heat pump is suitable for your property, you can consult the UK government’s suitability guide. The MCS best practice is here. or use our own quick suitability checker.

Heat Pump Suitability Checker

The primary types of heat pumps used in the UK include:

A hybrid system is another option to consider, where a fossil fuel-powered boiler (like gas) works alongside a heat pump. This setup can help meet increased heating demands during the colder winter months while still reducing overall reliance on non-renewable energy sources

Although all heat pumps work on the same principle, they collect heat in different ways:

  • Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP)
    These draw heat from the outside air using a unit that looks similar to an air conditioner, because it almost is one, just working the other way around, some units are designed to switch to air conditioning but you need to design the indoor delivery different.
  • Water Source Heat Pumps (WSHP)
    These collect heat through coils or mats placed under the surface of a pond, lake, or river.
  • Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP)
    These use long loops of pipe buried in the ground — either horizontally about 2 metres deep or vertically down boreholes reaching around 100 metres.

Once the heat is gathered, it’s transferred into your home through radiators, underfloor heating or blower units, depending on your home’s design and comfort preference.

This technology is new to many of us, and it needs to be used a little differently.

During the heating season, it’s best to control your home’s temperature rather than demand it. In other words, let the system maintain a steady temperature instead of turning it off and on all the time. It’s more efficient (and cheaper) to let the heat pump gently adjust the temperature up or down.

Most modern systems use outdoor temperature sensors to help with this. These sensors measure the air temperature outside and tell the heat pump how much heat your home is likely to need. On mild days, the system runs at a lower level; when it’s colder, it automatically increases output. This helps your heat pump work in tune with the weather, keeping your home comfortable while using less energy overall.

When looking at heat pumps, you’ll often see the terms COP and SCOP. These are simply ways of measuring how efficiently your system turns electricity nto heat.

COP — Coefficient of Performance.

Measures efficiency at one moment in time — usually in perfect test conditions.

SCOP — Seasonal Coefficient of Performance.

Gives a more realistic picture of your heat pump’s efficiency over an entire heating season.

Major Heat Pump Manufacturers.

UK

European manufacturers

Asian manufacturers

Emerging manufacturers