The most common heater found in homes in the U.S. is the natural gas furnace. This is a reliable heating system that provides whole-home comfort and can operate very efficiently if it’s professionally installed and maintained. However, in an area like ours, it might seem almost unnecessary to have a heating and cooling system that are separate from one another, especially there is an efficient option available that is both a heater and an air conditioner: the heat pump.
The Basics of a Heat Pump
A heat pump works a lot like an air conditioner, a somewhat peculiar fact if all you know about an air conditioner is that it cools a home. But what your air conditioner really does is move heat from one place to another.
Your air conditioner uses refrigerant, a chemical blend that goes from liquid to gas form and back again, to absorb heat from the air in your home and move it outside—that’s why the area around your outside unit is so warm. A heat pump moves the refrigerant in reverse (though it’s a lot less simple than that) and moves the heat from the outside air to the inside (yes, even though it’s cold outside!)
Installing this Efficient System
So is the heat pump the right fit for your air conditioning and heating needs? You’ll need to replace your current air conditioning system as well as your heater. But the benefits are often well worth the upgrade:
- You only have to maintain a single system.
- There are no gas or carbon monoxide leaks to worry about.
- The process of moving heat is more efficient than the process of generating heat, which means a heat pump can save money!
Robbins Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc. offers heat pump installation and service in Bloomfield. Don’t waste your time on the runaround. Let us do the job right the first time!