Heat pumps heat. Heat pumps also cool. Bet you did not know that! Now that you know that a dual-function heat pump can do both, you might be interested in swapping your old furnace and air conditioner for a single unit that does it all. Here are some more things to note about these dual-function heat pumps.
It Is Not Just Convenient, But Efficient Too
Turn on your furnace, and it takes time to heat up the house. Turn off the furnace, and turn on the air conditioner. The air conditioner takes time as well. Both consume a lot of energy and/or fuel (if they are gas or oil burning appliances). Get rid of the gas or oil, and dump half of the amount of electricity consumed by these two appliances alone, and you get a more efficient option: the heat pump!
Installation Is Fast, But Removal of Everything Else Is Slow
Since you are swapping two major household appliances for one, it should not surprise you that removing the other two appliances is going to take some time. Every piece of the furnace and air conditioner has to be painstakingly taken apart, hauled outside, and dropped into the technician's truck for disposal. After all of the remains of these two appliances are gone, the technician may need to make some alterations to the ductwork to accommodate the heat pump. Electrical wiring may need some adjustments as well. Then the real installation part of the job begins, but this part will go very fast by comparison. Before too long, the heat pump is installed and ready for use.
The Installers Will Flip the Thermostat to "Heat" and "Cool" to Check
Before leaving, one of the installers/technicians will ask to see the thermostat. He/she will flip on the cooling button and set the temperature to cool, then check the vents to see if cool air is flowing. It will take some time because heat pumps extract the warm air in a home, send it outside to circulate past a refrigerant, and then send it back inside. Once the cooling part of the dual-action heat pump is confirmed, then the installer/technician will switch to heat and repeat the check and verify process. If he/she is satisfied with how the heat pump system is working, then the job is complete. You sign the paperwork and pay what is owed. They will return in a few months for maintenance.
For more information, contact local professionals or visit sites like https://www.imsheatingandair.com.
Share25 June 2019
Every summer, I agonized over energy bills that would shoot into the stratosphere as a result of my efforts to keep cool in the heat. Every time I turned the temperature down, my bills increased. This summer, I decided to take some of the control over my energy bill back. I installed reflective film on my windows that reduced the amount of light and heat coming into the house. I started serving more cold meals or asking my husband to barbecue outside, so that my air conditioner didn't have to compete with the hot stove, and I started doing laundry at night to reduce appliance heat in the house at peak times. I also had ceiling fans installed. So far, the difference in my bill has been tremendous. This blog is a way for me to explore other ways to reduce energy drain during the summer months.