- Buckingham Palace adopts Green Heat Pumps

The Queen, Elton John, Richard Branson and Paul Allen are all going natural, saving themselves thousands of pounds a year. Whether digging up Buckingham Palace gardens or drilling the earth beneath Elton's Edwardian estate, Ground Source Heating is the latest 'green status symbol' - and even better, you can afford it too.

Ground Source Heating is claimed to be the future of home heating. A quick look at the advantages and you can see why, Reduces carbon footprints
No fuel deliveries required
Heats space and provides hot water
You can save up to 70% of your fuel bill
Needs little maintenance

Ground Source Heating does need electricity, but for every unit of electricity, two to three units of heat are generated.



How does it work?

Ground source heat pumps use pipes buried from 2 to 200 meters deep in your garden to extract heat from the ground. This is usually used to heat radiators, underfloor heating systems and hot water. How it works,

A mixture of water and antifreeze circulates around a loop of pipe - called a ground loop - which is buried in your garden.

The fluid absorbs ground heat and is pumped through the exchanger in the heat pump. Low grade heat is then concentrated to a higher temperature and is ready to heat your home. The fluid from the ground, now cooler, flows back into the ground repeating this process.

Do I have room for a ground source heat pump?

The size of your home and the amount of heat you need dictates how many ground loops you need. Longer loops can draw more heat from the ground, but need more space to be buried in. You can either burry the loops flat in a trench about 2 meters deep or if you need larger loops or have less room you can install a vertical loop down into the ground up to 100m. You can also install pipes down a deep vertical borehole.

What will it cost?

The typical cost of installg a system ranges from about £9,000 to £17,000. Running costs will depend on a number of factors - including the size of your home and how well insulated it is.

The government has a £10m fund to provide grants of £1,200 to householders to offset part cost of ground-source energy. For experienced and qualified engineers, quotations and advice regarding ground source heat pumps please call Commercial and Domestic Boiler Repairs 020 7244 8882 Ltd..