Question of the Month - Heat Pumps
March 18, 2008
Q: What is a heat pump?
A: Heat pumps are often misunderstood or not understood at all. Because of this, you may not realize that there may be a better heating and cooling option than a furnace or air conditioner. A heat pump is an efficient method of cooling your home in the summer and warming it in the winter.
Although heat pumps are new to many people, they have been around for over three decades. Although its name is a little misleading, a heat pump is an efficient method of heating a home during the cold winter months and also cooling it during the blistering summer months. A heat pump looks like an air conditioner, but that’s only the outside appearance. It actually has two functions based on the same principles for both. In warm weather situations, the heat pump works as a normal air conditioner. It extracts heat from inside the home and transfers it to the outdoor air.
In colder weather, however, the process reverses, collecting heat from the outdoor air and transferring it inside your home. Even when the air outside feels extremely cold, the air still contains some heat. The heat pump pulls the heat from this cold outdoor air and sends it inside to warm your home. When there is not enough heat in the outside air to meet the demand of the thermostat setting, an electric heater supplements the outdoor air to warm the home. While many people find the winter operation of a heat pump the most difficult to understand, it is during the heating cycle that the heat pump produces the most savings. Unlike a furnace that turns fossil fuel or electricity into heat, the heat pump collects heat that already exists in the outdoor air by means of its refrigeration cycle. Consequently, a heat pump will produce two to three times more heat than the energy it uses.
In addition, a heat pump can be an effective add-on option to use in conjunction with an existing gas furnace. With a dual-fuel system, the two systems share the heating load but never function at the same time. Each system operates when it is most cost effective. The heat pump will be the primary heating and cooling system. However, when the temperature drops below the heat pump’s ability to operate as efficiently as the gas furnace, the gas furnace will take over until the temperature rises enough for the heat pump to operate more efficiently.
Grants & Rebates Available
A federal government EcoEnergy
grant of $400 is available on air source heat pumps, although the same amount must be paid for an energy audit and follow-up evaluation. If a heat pump is installed with a new furnace
Article provided by Winnipeg Supply.
For more information on who installs heat pumps or any other heating and cooling equipment in your area contact the HouseSmart Referral Network.
To see more information on heat pumps check out HouseSmart Heating’s website at www.housesmartheating.com.