5 Heat Pump Facts That Will Help You Choose Wisely
You may feel like you’re behind the eight ball if you haven’t been fully briefed on the basics of a heat pump. Heat pump use is on the rise in Florida, with many homeowners converting their homes to the environmentally-friendly and efficient heating and cooling option.
You can quickly get up to speed about heat pumps with the five basic facts listed below, which can help you choose wisely when the time comes to upgrade your outdated, inefficient equipment to the high-performance capabilities of a heat pump. Heat pumps:
- Move energy — A heat pump’s ability to transfer energy from the air and into the home, a process it takes on during the winter, is what makes it ultra-efficient, without having to generate heat from scratch like combustible fuels. In the summer, the heat pump will transfer energy from inside your home to the outdoors. As a result, heat pumps have garnered a serious reputation for efficiency, often returning a 4-to-1 investment in terms of energy produced compared to energy consumed.
- Provide back-up heat — Your installer will set a balance point, a critical factor in ensuring efficiency that works with the local climate. When outdoor temperatures drop below this set point, the back-up heat will cycle on, which consumes more energy to operate.
- Have two efficiency ratings — Because these types of systems heat and cool, you’ll need to look for a heating seasonal performance factor (HSPF) rating above 8 and a seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER) above 14 for optimal efficiency.
- Require airflow — For heat pumps, more airflow is necessary than with forced air systems. Up to 500 cubic feet per minute (CFM) is necessary for every ton of cooling. Going below 400 CFMs can lead to a significant drop in efficiency and performance.
- Efficiency depends on features — It’s worth investigating features that will advance savings and comfort, such as a variable-speed air handler, two-stage cooling and thermal expansion valve.
For more information about heat pumps or their features, contact Symbiont Service Corp. We proudly help homeowners, businesses, aquatic parks, condominium associations and schools in Florida get the most out of their geothermal/heat-pump heating and cooling systems.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Englewood, Florida 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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