For the warm summers and mild winters of Metairie, LA, a heat pump offers a number of attractive features. Heat pumps combine the power of an air conditioner and heater in one unit, which makes them automatically beneficial as two-in-one systems. However, heat pumps are not always the best choice for a particular region (unless installed as a hybrid with a back-up heater), and even in regions where they are practical, they aren’t always the best choice for an individual home.
We’ll take a more detailed look at heat pump operation to see how practical they are for Metairie, LA heating and if your home specifically will benefit from their advantages. For more information, as well as to schedule an appointment to discuss heat pump installation, contact A–Professional Heating and Air Conditioning today.
Heat pumps: How they work, what they can do for you
A heat pump uses the same operating principle as an air conditioner: refrigerant circulates through the unit, going through a cycle of evaporation and condensation to move heat from one location and puts it in another. The heat pump adds the ability to switch the direction the refrigerant flows, using a reversing valve. This means that the heat pump can both remove heat from the indoors and put it outdoors (air conditioning) and remove heat from the outdoors and put it indoors (heating).
If you’re immediate thought is, “How does a heat pump extract heat from the cold outdoors to warm up a home during the winter?”, then you’ve latched onto one of the potential drawbacks of a heat pump. In general, a heat pump works less effectively in heating mode than in cooling mode. However, heat pumps only experience difficulties with efficiency when the outdoor temperature drops below freezing. Otherwise, there is a sufficient amount of heat even in cool weather to provide enough warmth for the indoors. In a place like Metairie, which rarely experiences extreme cold, the warmth from a heat pump is enough to keep most homes warm.
Heat pumps will save you money on heating compared to a furnace. Heat pumps only use a small amount of electricity to run their mechanical components to move heat from outdoors to indoors. Furnaces, on the other hand, must expend a large amount of fuel to create heat. Switching from a furnace to a heat pump in an area without extreme colds can result in savings of up to 30% off heating bills each year.
Is a heat pump right for your home?
You will need to have heat pump installers to help you answer this question. The insulation of your home, its size, access to power, and other factors will determine how efficiently a heat pump will work for your cooling and heating in Metairie, LA. Call up A–Professional Heating and Air Conditioning to get started: we’ll help you decide if you’ll benefit from a heat pump, and provide you a quality installation.