Learning how heat pumps work can help homeowners make the leap from using efficient yet conventional air conditioners to installing a highly efficient, ultra-comfortable heat pump.
Heat pumps have been around for some time. Japanese and European manufacturers have seen a steady demand for heat pumps for decades, and now homeowners in the U.S. are catching on to their unique advantages.
How heat pumps work
Heat pumps use refrigeration technology to cool the air in your home. However, their unique distinction is that they can also heat your home during cooler weather, providing a low-cost, two-in-one system for conditioning your home.
To cool your home in the summer season, a heat pump will draw warm air into the system, and then through a process of cycling through the evaporator’s cold coil and the condenser’s warm coil, exhaust that warm air outside, thereby cooling your home.
In heating season, the heat pump uses a reversing valve to reverse the process, allowing the system to find heat that exists in the outside air and then move it into your home.
Benefits heat pumps offer
Most homeowners are drawn to a heat pump unit because of three key benefits:
- Efficiency — Heat pumps are just as efficient, if not often slightly more efficient, than a conventional A/C. Of course, this depends on the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) of the unit that you choose. However, when it comes to the heating season, heat pump efficiency soars above the competition, providing up to $4 dollars of heat for every $1 you spend on electricity.
- Comfort — Heat pumps are designed to deliver a continuous stream of conditioned air at a lower volume than conventional forced-air units, which makes their capacity to create a ultra-comfortable home much higher.
- Dual action — If you need to upgrade the air-conditioning system in your home, and you also want to combine that with a more efficient heating system, a heat pump is the ideal solution. You’ll stay comfortable, get lower energy bills, and see a good return on investment.
For more information about heat pumps, contact Around The Clock Air Conditioning & Heating today! We serve the greater Los Angeles area.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Los Angeles, North Hollywood and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about heat pumps and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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