If you use a traditional heating and air conditioning system, then you might be fed up with high electrical bills. One of your primary alternative options is to install a new heat pump system. To help you decide whether this is the best option for you, here is an overview of how heat pumps work and how they stack up against traditional HVAC systems:
What is a heat pump?
Heat pumps are unique forms of residential climate control because they can act as either a heater or an air conditioner, depending entirely on what you need at the moment. This means that you only need to use one system for all of your heating and cooling needs. You won't need to worry about separate issues in separate devices, and tracking down a maintenance problem will be pretty easy.
How do heat pumps work?
The basic idea behind a heat pump is that it acts as a gradient between the inside and outside of your home. If you want to heat up your home, then it extracts some of the heat outside your home and puts it inside. If you want to cool your house down, then it takes some of the heat inside your home and dumps it outside.
How are heat pumps better than central heaters and air conditioners?
The primary advantage of a heat pump is that it can be much more efficient than central units. As long as the temperatures inside and outside your home are fairly similar, your heat pump can maintain that difference with relative ease. If you want your home to be a couple of degrees hotter or colder than the outside temperature, then a heat pump will be extremely efficient.
As was mentioned before, heat pumps also roll both units into a single device, which makes maintenance much more straightforward. Even if you don't know exactly how to solve a problem, you won't have nearly as many places to look.
What are the drawbacks?
The efficiency of heat pumps dramatically decreases as the temperature gap between your house and the outside grows. If you want your house to be a couple dozen degrees hotter or colder than the exterior, then a heat pump will cost a lot more than a traditional heating or cooling system. You can somewhat mitigate this by using a ground-based heat pump during the cold months, but that requires a more extensive installation. Click here for more info about how a heat pump can work for you.
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