HOW HEAT PUMPS WORK
These machines use cold outdoor air to heat homes
WORDS SCOTT DUTFIELD
Did you know?
Peter von Rittinger created the first heat pump system
Heat pumps can also be used to heat or cool large commercial buildings like offices
The outdoor unit of an air-to-air heat pump
Around 85 per cent of homes in the UK are equipped with a gas boiler, totalling around 26 million boilers nationwide. Each one of these boilers expels around 3.54 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually from burning natural gas. Collectively, the UK’s 26 million boilers pump out 92 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. The UK government has committed to zero emissions by 2050, and with this in mind there are calls for a ban on gas boilers as soon as 2025. But what could replace them?