If you’re looking to upgrade your home’s air conditioning system, you’ll reach a point where you must decide whether to stick with a central air conditioning system or switch to an air-source heat pump. It will help to familiarize yourself with heat pump advantages and disadvantages.
Similar Technology
Both of these systems condition the home using the principle of refrigeration. A chemical solution running through copper coils, refrigerant extracts heat energy from the air as it expands and turns into a gas, and then releases heat back into the air as it’s placed under pressure and converts back to a liquid. With a split-system A/C, this is a one-way process. Heat is absorbed by refrigerant in the inside evaporator coil, which creates cool air. After being pumped outside, the refrigerant releases the heat from the condensing coil in the outside unit, where a fan disperses it into the surrounding air.
While both A/Cs and heat pumps provide efficient cooling in this manner, the heat pump can reverse that process and also provide very efficient heating. It does this with a reversing valve that switches the flow of refrigerant. Heat is extracted from the outside air, then brought into the home and released into the inside air. Both systems use a powerful fan to deliver the conditioned air through ductwork and registers into all parts of your home.
The Main Advantage
The ability to both cool and heat is the primary advantage a heat pump has over a central air conditioner. While a heat pump may cost more than an A/C, in most cases, you won’t need to also maintain and operate a gas furnace for heating. Granted, standard air-source heat pumps will struggle to provide comfortable heat during extremely cold weather. This is why a standard feature of an air-source heat pump is an auxiliary electric heating element. Sometimes, however, a gas furnace is used as the backup or emergency heating source.
For more information on heat pump advantages, please contact us at Aggressive Mechanical. We provide superior HVAC and plumbing services to Monmouth County and surrounding communities.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Monmouth County, New Jersey and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
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