Should You Invest in a Heat Pump For Your Home?

Heat pumps are becoming an increasingly popular option for homeowners. These units offer both heating and cooling capabilities for all-year-round comfort. However, should you invest in one for your home?

What Is a Heat Pump?

A heat pump is a type of HVAC system that works to provide heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. It has three main components: refrigerant lines, an indoor air handler unit, and an outdoor condenser unit. Heat pumps can be used with traditional ductwork or with ductless mini-split units.

How Does a Heat Pump Work?

A heat pump works because of a substance called refrigerant. In the summertime, the cooling process starts at the indoor air handler unit. The blower components for your ducting will pull hot air from the rooms of your home into the indoor air handler unit. This hot air passes over the evaporator coil, which is filled with low-pressure liquid refrigerant.

Heat naturally wants to move to low-pressure substances. So as the air passes over the coil, its heat will move to the liquid refrigerant. This heats the refrigerant and causes it to turn into a gaseous state. The compressor inside the outdoor condenser unit will pump the hot refrigerant to the outdoor unit.

Just like the inside unit, the outdoor condenser unit will pull in air from outdoors and pass it over the condenser coil. The air is of lower pressure than the refrigerant, so heat moves from the refrigerant to the outdoor air. The remaining refrigerant turns back into a liquid state and starts its journey back inside.

It will pass through an expansion valve that’s responsible for altering the pressure of the refrigerant. This valve ensures that low-pressure refrigerant returns to the evaporator coil to start the cooling process all over again. During the winter months, this same process happens in reverse. Instead of transporting heat from inside your home to the outdoors, it moves heat from the air outside to the inside of your home.

Air-Source vs Ground-Source Heat Pumps

There are two categories of heat pumps that you can invest in for your home: air-source and ground-source heat pumps. Air-source heat pumps pull heat out of the air while ground-source heat pumps, also known as geothermal units, pull heat out of the soil. Air-source heat pumps are much cheaper to purchase and much less invasive to install. Ground-source heat pumps work in all climates but are much more expensive to purchase for the average homeowner.

The Many Benefits of a Heat Pump

There are many great benefits you can enjoy from investing in a heat pump for your home. By understanding what these benefits are, you can make a better-informed decision as to whether a heat pump is the right investment for your needs.

Dual Functionality

Probably one of the biggest benefits of a heat pump is that you only need to purchase one unit to handle your heating and cooling needs. There’s no need to invest in separate heating or cooling systems. You only need to worry about buying one unit, keeping warranty information for one system, and so forth.

High Energy Efficiency

Heat pumps offer the highest operating efficiency of all heating systems on the market today. Their ductless options even offer higher cooling efficiency than traditional central air conditioning systems. With a high operating efficiency, you can enjoy spending less money on heating and cooling bills throughout the year.

Tax Rebates

Because heat pumps have a high operating efficiency, the federal government has classified them as eligible for tax rebates. Under the Inflation Reduction Act, homeowners can enjoy receiving a tax rebate of up to a maximum of $3,200 on the purchase of their new heat pump. Even some local and state governments are offering tax rebates to homeowners who invest in heat pumps. This is an effort to reward homeowners who invest in energy-efficient appliances for their homes to reduce their family’s carbon footprint.

Enhanced Comfort

When you first use your heat pump, one of the first things you’ll notice is that it offers more comfort. Your rooms will maintain a consistent temperature that promotes more comfort. With traditional heating and cooling systems, there’s no steady temperature. This is because the units kick on and run, then stay off for a while. On the other hand, heat pumps stay running at a very low fixed rate. This allows them to provide continuous heating or cooling to maintain a steady, comfortable temperature for your home.

Safer Operation

One of the biggest concerns about using traditional fuel-burning heating systems, like a natural gas furnace, is exhaust fumes. Normally, these fumes get vented directly to the outdoors. However, when there’s a problem with your heating system, such as a cracked heat exchanger, toxic carbon monoxide can escape into your home. High levels of carbon monoxide can be dangerous and even lethal to humans.

All homes with fuel-burning heating systems must have well-functioning carbon monoxide detectors. Because heat pumps don’t burn fuel to create heat, they don’t create any toxic fumes. Rather, you can enjoy the peace of mind that your heat pump isn’t potentially dangerous to your health.

Super Quiet Operation

Most of the components for a heat pump are in the outdoor condenser unit, including the compressor pump. This means that the noise the pump makes is outside your home. Heat pumps offer super quiet operation for the inside of your home. Ductless mini-split units are even much quieter than ducted heat pump systems.

Zone Temperature Control

If you invest in a ductless mini-split heat pump system, there will be a mini-split unit installed in each main room of your home. Each unit will have its separate temperature settings that will operate independently from the rest of the units. This means that you can set your kitchen unit to 72 degrees Fahrenheit and your bedroom unit to 68 degrees Fahrenheit. With zone temperature control, you have more control over your comfort and can be more efficient with your energy usage.

A Note on Freezing Temperatures

Air-source heat pumps can work efficiently at temperatures above freezing. However, as temperatures get below freezing, the efficiency of the unit will significantly decrease. When the heat pump is no longer able to extract a significant amount of heat from the air outdoors, it will switch to its auxiliary heating mode.

This uses an internal heating element inside the indoor air handler unit that’s powered by electricity. The inside blower fan will force the cold indoor air over the electronic heating element to warm the air. Auxiliary mode is not as energy efficient as a heat pump’s regular operating mode. It’s also much more expensive to use as electricity costs more to run than other fuel sources.

Reliable Heat Pump Service

Associated Heating & Air, Inc. offers heat pump service for the Anaheim, CA area. We can also help with all your heating needs as well as cooling, and indoor air quality services. Simply call our office today to book your next consultation with one of our HVAC technicians.