Water Source Heat Pump
Like air source heat pumps these are fitted to individual homes, but they draw their heat from water such as a lake or river.
How It Works
Most Efficient
The most efficient, with lower running costs that air or ground source heat pumps
Consistent Temperature
Normally heat pumps run continuously to maintain a steady temperature
Radiator Upgrades
May require radiator upgrades
Given the amount of water in the area, this is a particularly interesting option, especially as water source heat pumps are the most efficient type of heat pump, with the lowest running costs. Indeed such a system is used to heat the millennium building on the Cotswold Beach and Park.
There are two types, closed and open.
With a closed system, the piping may be in the form of a mat that is floated out onto a lake and sunk to the bottom. Non-hazardous fluid flows through the pipes that absorb heat from the water.
An open system draws lake water directly, passes it through the heat pumps and sends it back into the lake.
This would, of course, need some environmental investigation to understand if the mats (closed) or pumping (open) would have any adverse effect on the lakes and for closed the mats selected to use a safe fluid that would not risk contaminating a lake in case of a leak. As with ground source heat pumps, we’d need permission from the Environment Agency.
Typically a water source system would be deployed at scale and shared by multiple homes. In Lower Mill Estate it may also be possible to share the system with communal buildings such as The Spa.