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Heat Pumps 101: Four Common Types of Heat Pump Configurations

John Siegenthaler John Siegenthaler

This is the sixth in a series of Heat Pump 101 videos from instructor and author, John Siegenthaler, P.E.. “How Do Heat Pumps Pull Heat from Cold Air?” was the previous lesson in the series. You can enroll in John’s Heat Pump 101 course for free to learn the very basics of heat pumps in less than an hour.


The four common heat pump configurations are:

  1. Air-to-Air heat pumps (AAHP)
  2. Water-to-Air heat pumps (WAHP)
  3. Water-to-Water heat pumps (WWHP)
  4. Air-to-Water heat pumps (AWHP)

This video describes each configuration, with pictures and descriptions about how the systems work.

The next video in this series describes how air-to-air heat pumps work. If you want to see that video now or jump ahead to the others, you can find them all in John Siegenthaler’s free Heat Pump 101 course.

John Siegenthaler
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John Siegenthaler

John Siegenthaler, P.E., is a mechanical engineer and graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a licensed professional engineer, and Professor Emeritus of Engineering Technology at Mohawk Valley Community College. “Siggy” has over 35 years of experience in designing modern hydronic heating systems. He is a hall-of-fame member of the Radiant Professionals Alliance and a presenter at national and international conference on hydronic and radiant heating. John is principal of Appropriate Designs – a consulting engineering firm in Holland Patent, NY. The 3rd edition of his textbook – Modern Hydronic Heating – was released in January 2011. John currently writes about hydronic heating and solar thermal system design for several trade publications.

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