If you’re moving into a home with a heat pump, you’ll want to know some basic facts about how these efficient HVAC systems work. Used properly, a heat pump can save money on both heating and cooling. When in heating mode, a well-maintained air-source heat pump can deliver three to four times the heat energy as the electrical power that goes into the system.
There are two primary kinds of heat pump: geothermal and air source. Air source is by far the most popular, but geothermal has been gaining market share because of its enhanced energy efficiency. Here’s how they work:
- Air-source heat pump – These are split systems, with an air handler inside the house and a compressor/condenser outside. They don’t create heating or cooling, but rather move heat energy from one place to another—inside to outside to cool the home and outside to inside for heating. They employ the principle of refrigeration—the same idea behind air conditioning—to absorb heat from the air, either with the inside or outside heat pump unit, and then transferring it in the other direction.
- Geothermal heat pump – These more efficient heat pumps don’t absorb or release heat from/into the air, but rather use the earth under your property as the medium of heat exchange. In summer, the earth is cooler than the outside air, while in the winter it’s warmer. This means less energy is required to absorb or reject heat. Geothermal heat pumps, however, still use an inside air handler unit to extract or release heat from/into the interior air, before circulating it with a blower and ductwork.
Air-source heat pumps are ideal in areas with relatively mild winters. However, in cold-winter areas, they will use more energy during especially cold weather, since it’s more difficult to extract heat from frigid outside air. In these cases, the heat pump uses an emergency or auxiliary heating system, either electric-resistance coils or a gas furnace, to provide supplemental heat.
For help finding the right heat pump for your home, contact Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning, proudly serving Lorain area homeowners for more than 35 years.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Lorain, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
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Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning
1 (440) 246-5440
Serving the Lorain, OH Area