Ground lake water source heat pumps County Durham

Ground source heat pumps with pond mats providing energy from a lake

Loops of ground collector pipe installed in a lake can be used with a ground source heat pump as an alternative to putting the loops in the ground. The loops are in constant contact with the water in the lake which provides an effective heat transfer.

The ground loop pipe is loosely coiled and configured into pond mats or lake loops. When a pond is drained it can be laid near the bottom of the lake. Alternatively, if the lake is full the loops can be towed in to position and then weighed down to allow them to be lowered to the lake bed.

Cages can also be used to protect the pond mats. If using an existing water resource, closed-loop pond or lake heat pump schemes tend to have lower installation costs than where boreholes have to be drilled or trenches excavated for a ground-based system. Flow in a lake tends can improve the performance of the heat pump system and allow higher source temperatures, hence improving the heat pump’s efficiency or COP.

The bottom of a lake tends to be warmest in winter when a building has the most heat demand In this particular scheme lake loops were connected to 2 reversible heat pumps each of 30kW capacity which provides both heating and cooling to fan convector units in the office accommodation.

As well as this water source heat pump installation in Durham, Geowarmth have undertaken similar pond loop heat pump schemes in Northumberland, Cumbria and Yorkshire.