A natural method of heating your home is to extract heat from the warm air outside converting this into warm air pumped into your home or transformed to warm water that can be pumped into a system of radiators or underfloor heating.
Air source heat pumps absorb heat from the outside air. This heat can then be used to warm water for radiators or underfloor heating systems, or to warm the air in your home.
The air source heat pump extracts heat from the outside air the same way that a fridge extracts heat from its inside to keep it cool. Heat from the air can be collected even down to temperatures as low as minus 15° C.
The two main types of air source pumps are the air to water pump which uses the gathered heat to warm the water. The temperature of this heat is lower and more gentle than a regular gas boiler and as such would work well with underfloor heating systems. The air to air system produces warm air which is circulated by fans to heat your home.
As with all home heating systems, there is always a trade off output against input. The efficiency of air source heat pump systems is measured by a coefficient of performance (CoP) - the amount of heat they produce compared to the amount of electricity needed to run them. If this is satisfied, a reduction on home fuel bills is guaranteed as only a small amount of electricity will be used.