If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your existing HVAC system, you may be considering a heat pump. We get a lot of questions from customers about whether a heat pump is good for our New York climate.
The short answer is yes, and you can keep reading to learn more about why a heat pump is great for both heating and cooling in our area. Call us anytime to schedule an in-home assessment for a heat pump installation. Then we can help you over the lifespan of your unit with everything from maintenance to heat pump repair in Staten Island, NY.
How Does a Heat Pump Work?
Heat pumps are completely unique compared to any other type of HVAC system. Usually an HVAC system works as either an air conditioner or a heater. But a heat pump can provide both heating and cooling for your home year-round. Heat pumps are most comparable to central air conditioners because they use refrigerant.
The key difference is that a heat pump has a handful of other mechanisms that allow the refrigerant to move in the opposite direction and bring heat into your home. With a central air conditioner or a heat pump in cooling mode, refrigerant absorbs heat from the air inside your home and transfers that heat outside as a method of cooling.
The reversing valve on a heat pump allows refrigerant to move in the opposite direction for bringing heat into your home from outside as a method of heating. Even when temperatures drop in the winter time, there is still some heat in the air that refrigerant can absorb and transfer into your home to raise the temperature.
Considerations for Heating
The biggest potential downside to having a heat pump is that it may not be as effective at heating your home in the winter. But you should know that technology has grown leaps and bounds to allow heat pumps to operate much more effectively at heating. In fact, having a heat pump as a heater is actually much safer and more energy efficient compared to a gas or electric furnace.
You just have to make sure that you select the right type of heat pump for our climate. More specifically, you want to invest in a cold-weather heat pump that has a little bit more heating power compared to a standard heat pump. You also have the option to install a dual fuel system, which works primarily as a heat pump but also has a small add-on furnace to provide a boost in heating when you need it most.
One of the most important factors to consider when selecting a heat pump is overall efficiency. Heat pumps receive two different efficiency ratings. The SEER2 rating is efficiency for cooling while the HSPF2 rating is efficiency for heating. In our climate zone, it is more important to pay attention to the HSPF2 rating for heating.
But you don’t have to do this alone. Our team is here to help. We can talk to you about these different efficiency ratings, exactly what they mean, and help you choose the best heat pump to fit your home, family and expectations for heating and cooling.
Contact the team at Scaran today to schedule an appointment with our experts. We’re here with you every step of the way.
