Is A Heat Pump Right for You?

Typically, people will use two appliances to provide heating and cooling for their home. You have your central-air AC unit and your furnace. You have twice the cost and twice the amount of space in your home that you have to dedicate to your appliances. If you want to save money and space, you can consider using a heat pump, but you have to make sure that a heat pump will work well in your climate. 

What Is a Heat Pump?

An AC unit will use a set of evaporator coils on the inside of your house to allow the coolant in your unit to absorb heat from the air in your home. A set of condenser coils on the outside of your home vents the heat from your coolant into the outside air. If you reverse this process, you can turn the outside coils into evaporator coils, which absorb heat from the outside air and vent it into your home through a set of condenser coils on the inside. A heat pump will allow you to reverse the flow of coolant through the system, so you can both heat and cool your home with one system.

What Are the Limitation of a Heat Pump?

You might wonder how a heat pump can absorb heat if the outside air is cold. The answer is that even cold air has a little bit of heat in it, so a heat pump will extract heat even from air that is around freezing. That being said, the colder it gets outside, the less efficient your heat pump will be. The problem is that, the colder the air gets, the harder it is to extract heat. Thus, if you live in the southern states, you might have no problem heating your home with a heat pump, but if you live in the northern states, you should consider using a furnace to get you through the cold winter months. 

Even if you live in the northern states, you should consider using a heat pump to provide you with comfort for three out of four seasons. During the more temperate fall and spring months, a heat pump should have no problem heating your home. You can then use your furnace only on the coldest nights. Considering alternatives to the traditional furnace/AC unit combo will help you find greater efficiency than you could if you simply assume that you only have one option. Talk to a professional like American Independent Heating & Air Conditioning for more information


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