A simple explanation is that the heat pump is an appliance that only uses a small amount of energy to move heat from one point to another. The Heat pump is normally used to remove heat out of the air or the ground and use it to heat a home or office, however, they can also be used in reverse to cool a building. So, if you if you are familiar with how an air conditioner operates, then you probably know a lot about the heat pump.

This is because heat pumps and air conditioners work in a very similar way. Broadgate Plumbers know how a heat pump works. They are powered by electricity so the power taken to run them is supplied from coal, oil and gas fired generating plants. So not only are they using fossil fuel but they are burning it in a not very efficient way. By the time it reaches you it has dropped in efficiency by 20% This makes the carbon footprint 17 which in ecological terms is massive. Because it is super efficient all a heat pump can do is try and drop the electricity carbon footprint to something that is comparable to natural gas. Barbican Plumbers can install and maintain all types of heat pumps.

It is quite possible that you could aquire the electricity you use from a green retailer or even make your own using photovoltaic solar panels (PV) these heat pumps suddenly become a different option. These solar panels cannot be used in a direct way as they tend to work better in summertime when the pump isn’t running, plus they are not able to generate the massive starting current that is required to start the pump, as this current is up to eight times the normal running current. Using the solar panel option you will be able to cover the expense of running the heat pump by actually selling back your voltaic electricity to the national grid, and you don’t need a massive amount of panels to do this.

Contamination is a big fear for anybody, as it can cause real harm to human beings. So every effort is made to ensure that no contamination occurs in our water systems. Should it happen, it is best to hand over to a professionally trained and experienced service at once like Broadgate Plumbers who can fit devices in pipework. An old yet reasonably common way for contamination to happen is through a process called ‘back flow’. So how does back-flow work? Well, normally the cold water flowing into your home is high pressure. It means that the filling of your bath or the watering of your garden is really quite quick but it also makes sure that your water supply is only flowing in one direction, i.e. from the hosepipe on the lawn and into your bath tub.

Nothing will contaminate the mains cold-water system nothing can make it’s way in, however what if this pressure dropped?

If say, there was a breach of the water main pipework down at the bottom of your street, and the supply was cut to your property for a while. If you were watering your garden at the time you may think that the hose was twisted. You lay the hose down and go and check. Whilst you are doing this, the water in your garden suddenly finds itself being sucked back into the now empty hose, and this will flow, back into the cold water mains. The water now is now free to be contaminated with lots of foreign products such as, dirt, pesticides, plant food and lots more undesirables. In order to prevent this, water regulators state that you must fit devices to stop ‘back flow’. Barbican Plumbers fit check valves. For the hosepipe example, you should fit a ‘double check’ valve on an outside tap.

This is a simple device that will only ever allow the water to flow in one direction. If this is fitted and you lose pressure, it will not let water flow back into the main supply thus stopping contamination.