Heat Pumps Today

18 Air conditioning systems have come on leaps and bounds as equipment has become ever more sophisticated and systems have been combined to boost efficiency thanks to new developments such as hybrid technology. Tim Mitchell, sales director of Klima-Therm, explains Pick and mix What seems like just a few short years ago, a typical mobile phone was the size and weight of a brick and you could only use it for making calls (and not always even for that). A modern smart phone, however, is a hi-tech Swiss Army knife of applied science. As well as making calls, you can use it to text, take photographs, navigate, email, watch TV, listen to music, record conversations, manage your calendar, get a weather forecast, chat on social media … the list goes on. This trend of applying technology to multiple uses is also increasingly common in building services. Indeed, we are witnessing a sea change in the way we October | November 2021 H Y B R I D H E A T P U M P S Tim Mitchell heat and cool our homes and businesses as heat pumps grow in popularity. Heat pumps are essentially comfort systems that move heat from one place to another via a compressor. They also include the necessary piping, heat exchangers and controls to carry and meter the refrigerant, through which heat is extracted from outside sources and pumped indoors. Pumping heat around these systems consumes less electricity than using electricity directly on its own for heating purposes. This cycle can be reversed and the system can act like an air conditioner, taking heat away from the inside of the building and rejecting it to outside. Their benefits, however, do not end there.