Heat pumps are becoming increasingly popular as a way of heating and cooling homes, especially in colder climates. The Arctic Cold Climate Heat Pump is a low-temperature heat pump system specifically designed to work in temperatures as low as -25C (-15F).
But you might be wondering how does it work in cold climates? If you want to understand the working principle, you should understand the refrigeration cycle.
Generally, the refrigeration cycle works on three basic principles. Please take a look at the post and find additional information.
Firstly, the cold air has energy. This concept is challenging for most individuals to understand. However, air below freezing can contain energy. The air below freezing has nearly the same amount of relative energy likewise above freezing. Only in space, the temperature is -273C (absolute zero) as there is no energy left in the air. You should understand this concept to know how a low-temperature heat pump can work.
Secondly, warm always moves to cold, which is the basic concept of heat transfer. Warm air has more energy and molecules collide as compared to cold air. Hence, the warm air will naturally migrate to cold air until the equilibrium is established.
In a cold climate heat pump, this principle is used to transfer heat from the colder outside air to the warmer air inside the home. With a colder liquid like Freon that does not freeze until -50C, the heat pump system can cause the warmer -25C air to transfer its energy to the colder Freon inside the heat pump.
Thirdly, pressure helps in determining the boiling point, which is important for the heat pump operation. Different substances have different boiling points; but can be changed by adding or removing pressure. For example, water boils at 100C at 14.69 Psi (sea level). When you reduce the pressure, it boils faster. The refrigeration cycle uses a refrigerant i.e. R410a undergoes a phase change from liquid to gas at significantly colder temperatures than water.
When adjusting the refrigerant temperature, you can manipulate when this phase change occurs. The refrigerant, which has a temperature of -50C, flows through a heat exchanger. Through natural heat transfer, the warmer energy from the surrounding air, which has a temperature of -25C, moves toward the colder refrigerant around the heat exchanger. As a result, the refrigerant absorbs energy.
When the system heats up, the refrigerant starts evaporating or boiling and turns into a gas. The refrigerant gas then moves to the compressor to be compressed, which helps in significantly increasing temperature with the decreasing volume. After that, the hot gas heads to another heat exchanger and colder water/glycol is present on the other side. Then, the energy transitions from hot to cold which heats the water/glycol loop inside the home. The refrigerant starts losing its heat which causes it to cool back to a liquid to start the cycle again.
Conclusion –
A low-temperature heat pump is simply a way of transferring energy from one source to another. The system works on the refrigeration cycle. If you are looking for an innovative and energy-efficient way to heat and cool homes, feel free to contact Arctic Heat Pumps at 1-866-800-8123.
