The systems we specialise in get their energy in the form of heat from four main sources: the ground, water, air and directly from the sun.

The heat collected from each of these sources comes originally from the sun. As the sun shines it heats the earth, water and air around us. Econic’s renewable energy systems allow the heat stored in the environment be collected and used in a highly efficient way.

The technology used in these systems is not unfamiliar and very similar to that used in a domestic refrigerator or freezer. The stored heat in the environment is extracted and then delivered into your home, office, hospital or work place.

There is effectively an unlimited amount of heat energy stored in the earth, water and air. Heat pumps allow us to capture this energy and then use it to provide heating and hot water.

For every 1kW of electricity used to power a heat pump over 4kW of heat can be supplied, depending on the type of system and operating conditions. As three quarters of the energy comes for free from the environment a heat pump can significantly reduce heating bills as well as delivering a potentially zero carbon heating system.

Sources

Energy is extracted from the ground using a so called Ground Energy Array. Various types of array can be used, the most common being the “closed loop” in which an series of pipes is buried in the ground either in a series of horizontal trenches at shallow depth or vertically in deep boreholes. A special heat transfer fluid circulates in these pipes which lead to the heat pump system where the energy can then be extracted.

On sites where a good supply of water is available from a lake, river or well a Water Energy Array can be considered. In a closed loop water array the pipes are simply laid in the water (lake or river) rather than being buried in the ground as mentioned above. In an open loop system water is pumped directly from a well and passed through the heat pump before being pumped back into the ground.

The air around us contains a surprising amount of heat energy even on relatively cold days. An air source heat pump extracts this energy using a fan blowing over a heat exchanger. As it requires no collector array an ASHP is less expensive to install although slightly less efficient than a GSHP.

The heat of the sun, even on a cloudy day, can be collected with the use of solar thermal panels, which in turn can be used to heat water and provide heating.