Heat pumps are one of the most common ways to condition homes in the St. Petersburg area because they operate so efficiently in climates that rarely experience freezing weather. Instead of creating heat like furnaces do, they move heat. In the summer, they extract it from your home’s air and take it outdoors, and in the winter, they reverse the process, bringing it inside.
The advantages a heat pump offers include:
- High efficiency. Unlike furnaces, the pump uses electricity to capture the heat in the outside air to warm your home. It transfers the heat into the refrigerant, which enters the evaporator coil inside the indoor air handler. The fan pulls air over the coil, warming it, and it’s sent through the ductwork. Combustion furnaces rely on natural gas or propane to heat the air and can never be more than 99.99 percent efficient. An air-source heat pump, on the other hand, may be able to create three times or more heat from each unit of energy it uses.
- Safety. Since heat pumps don’t use fuel, there’s no risk of carbon monoxide from the heating system. If your home is all-electric, you won’t require a gas line and the monthly charges that using gas entails.
- Indoor air quality. A heat pump doesn’t dry the air in the winter as much as a combustion furnace. The air filters for the pump also keep your home’s air cleaner, especially if you choose a high efficiency filter.
- Simplicity. You only need one appliance for both heating and cooling.
The only disadvantage associated with a heat pump in this region is during cold weather. When temperatures fall into the low 30s, there’s less heat in the air. The pump may have to turn on the supplemental electric heating coil, which uses one unit of energy for each unit of heat it creates. However, an intelligent recovery thermostat designed specifically for heat pumps can overcome this issue by overriding the coil, using the pump for heating instead.
To learn more about heat pumps for your home in St. Petersburg, contact Senica Air Conditioning, Inc. today.
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