Air Source heat pump inlet pipe in cellar?

You will simply make the cellar colder and then heat will transfer from the house.

I don't think it is a good idea. Outside, ideally on a South or South West aspect sheltered from North/Easterly winds would be ideal.

If you had any land then installing at one end of a closed polytunnel might work too, but if you had any decent land then a ground source heat pump might be a better bet, depending on your location and soil type. Nice sticky clay is best (AFAIK).

it is this depth which is used for many ground-source heat pumps, sometimes loosely referred to as "geothermal heat pumps" by laypeople. The top hundreds of meters reflect past climate change;

descending further, warmth increases steadily as interior heat sources begin to dominate."

Now, get diggin :-) Your free energy awaits.

Um, you'll probably have to dig lower than the cellar...

Paul

Sounds like an excellent way to make a walk-in freezer, but won't do much for efficiency or heating the house.

You need about 1m3/second of air flow, and if any of that is not at ambient temperature then efficiency will nosedive. So a polytunnel is unlikely to work, especially when overcast or at night, This is also why installing a duct from the outside to an ASHP in the cellar is unlikely to work unless the duct is ~0.5m across.

If you have the land ground source is generally more efficient, although there are issues if you take out too much heat in winter that the land doesn't recover in the summer, so the loop needs to be properly sized.

Water source is best, if you have a lake or river available.

Theo

I have a river:-) I suspect the EA may object to me extracting heat from it. Actually warmer than spring fed due to upstream sewage treatment.

I don't see why in principle given it's being done up and down the country by various councils.

While both have their own advantages, the latter type requires less maintenance and an easier application process, making it a cheaper option."

"Environmental Legislation to Keep in Mind

Specific environmental regulations and considerations must be addressed before installing water source heat pumps. Open-loop systems alter the temperature of groundwater, while thermal plumes affect hydrochemistry and bacteriology.

Depending on the type of system you wish to install, licenses may be required. For example, hydrogeology and thermal properties have to be investigated, and they require a license to examine groundwater and an abstraction license (permission of diverting surface or groundwater) which can be obtained from the Environment Authority."

That last paragraph, can be a bitch.

Paul

True. As so often, no pain = no gain :) But I thought (perhaps wrongly) that Tim was already familiar with abstraction licences. And there are some simplifications for systems for single domestic properties. See under "Surface water open-loop heat pump systems for a single domestic property" at

I have not really explored this. We own both banks of a non navigable stream for about 200m and a single bank for about 1000m. The rules kindly allow me to extract up to 20cu.m/day. I think someone once worked out the extractable energy which at Winter temperatures was quite low. Inserting heat exchangers into the stream bed has not been tested but their first quibble will be anti-freeze chemicals (salt?).

The other issue is having a heat requirement close to the bank which I don't currently have.

I have not looked at this for some years. Any application here would be for space heating barns used for light industrial purposes.

My current tenants work mainly offsite and manage with localised heating for gluing/painting jobs.

Come 2025 when such buildings have to meet a standard of insulation not required for agriculture, fans and s*1t will meet:-(