Whether you’re a homeowner, self builder, developer, landlord, or business, find the perfect ground source heat pump for your project with Kensa's heat pump solutions.
Kensa's design & support services coupled with a comprehensive range of ground source heat pumps ensure homeowners enjoy significant energy efficiency, bill savings & government funding.
Kensa’s ground source heat pumps bring social housing communities together to help eradicate fuel poverty & reduce heating bills. Using cost-effective Shared Ground Loop Arrays, housing associations can reduce carbon emissions on a huge scale.
Swimming pools, hot tubs, boat sheds, boats, water parks: you name it, we've fitted it! Ground source heat pumps offer an energy-efficient solution to heating & cooling water sources, as well as using water sources to heat & cool buildings.
Small but packing a punch, the award-winning Kensa Shoebox series produces temperatures up to 65°C. It features the quietest & smallest ground source heat pump on the market, offering an efficient, practical & affordable heating & hot water solution.
The efficient Evo series features 7kW, 9kW, 13kW & 15kW single phase models, & a 15kW three phase model. The elegant, simple-to-install, & ErP A+++ rated Evo series offers a 15% gain in efficiency & low noise outputs, perfect for medium to large homes.
The Kensa Q comprises of modular three phase models to provide tailored outputs for high heating & cooling demands, providing greater flexibility & compatibility with Building Management Systems
Installers are integral to the UK’s transition to low-carbon heating. Kensa is continually building a network of trusted, recommended and experienced installers across the UK.
Kensa offers a free, progressive and tailored training pathway for installers from all backgrounds. Start from the ground up or add to your existing knowledge whilst learning at your own pace.
Kensa's Partner Network recognises installers for their proven skills and experience with ground source heat pumps and offers exclusive member benefits.
Kensa has a nationwide network of trusted installers to help with your ground source heat pump project. Simply submit your plans and Kensa will recommend the right installer for you.
Kensa Heat Pumps is the UK’s number one ground source heat pump brand. We offer ground source heat pump training for trainers in training centres, sharing our extensive knowledge of ground source heat pump fundamentals and best practices with your trainers and students.
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is a government-proposed scheme to deliver grants of up to £6,000 towards heat pump installations in UK households. The scheme, which was known as the Clean Heat Grant, is intended to replace the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) from April 2022 to 2028.
The ECO supports retrofit efficiency works in the domestic sector with an upfront grant, with a particular focus on vulnerable consumer groups & hard-to-treat homes.
The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme is a fund dedicated to heat decarbonisation & capital energy efficiency projects in non-domestic public sector buildings across England.
Through this scheme, an investor funds the network – known as Shared Ground Loop Arrays – to cover the most expensive aspect of the project. In return, the investor can charge connection fees if they wish.
Our Technical Director Guy Cashmore is a regular columnist for Heat Pumps Today magazine and has written a special feature about the considerations of running large heat pumps on single phase power supplies.
Our Technical Director Guy Cashmore is a regular columnist for Heat Pumps Today magazine and writes on a monthly basis about hot topics within the heat pump industry.
He has put together a special feature about the considerations of running large heat pumps on single phase power supplies.
You can view the article on page 13 of the online issue here. Alternatively, you can read the article in full below:
Heat Pumps and Single Phase Power
The United Kingdom is often called the ‘odd man out’ of Europe for lots of different reasons; a lesser known British ‘eccentricity’ is our typical domestic electricity supply. In nearly all of Europe, three phase electricity is supplied as standard to all but the very smallest of homes, but in the UK three phase power is very rarely supplied as standard, except to the very largest of homes.
In the UK three phase power is rarely supplied as standard
Where heat pumps are concerned this means that most of the European manufacturers simply don’t make large output single phase units; this is where companies like Kensa Heat Pumps, who manufacture single phase units up to 24kW, have found a niche.
Running large heat pumps on single phase power does present some challenges though: large single phase compressor motors typically have very high inrush (starting) currents that can cause lights to flicker, and other electrical appliances that are sharing the same supply to malfunction. As this could be at a neighbouring property, the network operators have become very fussy about what can and can’t be connected to a domestic supply. To overcome this, two technically quite different approaches exist to solving the issue.
There are two different approaches to solving the issue
The first, which is most commonly used in air source heat pumps, is actually to fit a three phase compressor and additionally fit a converter (known as an inverter) that converts the single phase power to three phase. This approach beautifully solves the starting current issue but unfortunately creates two new issues: one is harmonics (a different type interference) that travel back up the electricity supply cables and can cause other appliances to malfunction; the other is a loss of efficiency. The inverters themselves are less than 100% efficient in the conversion, so some of the electricity used is always being wasted; this is one of the reasons why air source units are generally less efficient than ground source.
The alternative is to fit a single phase compressor motor combined with an electronic limiter that reduces the inrush current to an acceptable level; typically this will be reduced to about one quarter of the ‘direct on line’ current. Although the starting current won’t be as low as when using an inverter, because the electronic limiter is taken out of circuit once the compressor has started. The harmonic and efficiency loss problems don’t exist with this type of system.
How to achieve a high heat output
So avoiding inverters is possible and desirable, but isn’t the only difficulty with large single phase units in the UK market. Because the global demand for large single phase compressor motors is small, currently the largest commercially produced heat pump compressor gives a maximum heat output of about 12kW to 13kW. This is enough for the average size home but not sufficient for anything larger. With most manufacturers this would mean fitting two separate single phase heat pumps, although Kensa produces twin compressor machines that provide a lower cost solution.
Using two compressors and two separate refrigerant circuits opens up another possibility: that is to use different refrigerant gases in each circuit. Some gases (like R407C and R410A) give high kW outputs but at the expense of limited maximum temperature to around 55°C, which is fine for space heating but not really high enough for hot water production. Other gases (like R134a) do the opposite, giving high temperatures up to around 65°C, but with reduced kW capacity from the same size compressor. But by combining the two gases in a twin circuit heat pump, it is possible to produce a single machine that only has a small kW penalty but can produce high temperature hot water when required. Indeed, Kensa’s Twin Hybrid Compact heat pump does just this.
So with careful system design and product choice, even large properties that have only single phase power can benefit from heat pumps. These dwellings in particular are likely to be currently using expensive oil or LPG, and have the land available for the lowest cost horizontal ground arrays.
*Published online in Heat Pumps Today magazine January 2015
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.