Can You Use an Air Source Heat Pump in Winter?

More and more people are considering air source heat pumps as an alternative to their conventional gas boiler. Like a boiler, they provide heating and hot water to your home. But unlike a boiler, they do it using natural heat from the air outside your home.

But what happens when the air outside your home is cold? In other words, do air source heat pumps work in winter?

Heat when it’s needed most

While hot water is required all year round, heating is only needed when the days get a bit colder. Unfortunately, in the UK, that’s most of the year. Many homes have their heating on for the majority of autumn and spring. Some even switch it on for a particularly chilly summer day.

As you might expect though, the coldest time of the year is winter, when temperatures typically range from 7°C down to freezing. While autumn or spring would be a bit uncomfortable without heating, winter would be simply unbearable.

That’s exactly why some customers are so concerned about their air source heat pump in winter, and whether it would actually be able to provide heating at the time when it’s most needed. The good news is, it can…

How air source heat pumps work in winter

To understand how air source heat pumps work in winter, it’s worth digging a little deeper into how they generate heat from your home. Rather than using warm air per se, the heat pump actually extracts heat from the air.

This heat is then absorbed by a refrigerant which evaporates into a gas before being compressed to increase its temperature. That all takes place in a heat exchanger, which warms the water around it in the process.

While you might assume that low temperatures mean there is no heat in the air, that’s certainly not true. Absolute zero or ‘zero kelvins’ is the temperature at which there is no heat whatsoever in the air. And it’s much colder than you think, at -273.15°C.

So how cold can they go?

Air source heat pumps are designed to operate at temperatures as low as -20°C. With the typical UK winter temperatures rarely dropping below zero, a heat pump will still be able to operate throughout the colder days, weeks and months.

All that said, an air source heat pump’s winter efficiency might not be quite as good as it is in summer. While there’s still heat in the air at 0-10°C, it is admittedly a bit harder to extract. Your air source heat pump will need to use more electricity to extract the heat, which will lower its coefficient of performance (COP).

In ideal conditions, air source heat pumps have a COP upwards of 3, while winter weather may see this drop to around 2-2.5. That still means the heat pump is producing at least 2 kWh worth of heating for every 1 kWh of electricity it uses.

Renewable heating all year round

With air source heat pumps working in winter, you can rest assured your home will be comfortable all year round without the sky-high energy bills that come from a gas boiler. Ready to get started? COA Services can supply and install a top-rate air source heat pump at your property in Harrogate, Leeds and the surrounding areas.

Get the ball rolling with a free, no obligation quote by calling us on 01423 408 336 or emailing [email protected].