The Tech Fueling the Heat Pump Boom
By: Brian Sodoma, for Service Experts
If you are thinking about a new climate control system, you’ve probably seen heat pumps. While they’ve been around for more than a century, in 2020 they officially surpassed gas furnaces in sales. Distinct from furnaces, which use natural gas, propane gas or oil to generate heat and electricity for cooling, heat pumps only use electricity.
Heat pumps are enticing since they are extremely energy efficient and eco-friendly; they don’t consume fossil fuels like natural gas. Heat pumps are considered a major solution for reducing carbon emissions and studies reveal that heat pumps are a greener option for your home heating system. At the same time, concerns about their performance in cold weather have held back some consumers. But that’s changing now—due to new technology.
Learn more about how heat pump technology advancements are making these HVAC systems more attractive than ever for homeowners across the country.
The Benefits of Heat Pumps
Producing roughly four times the amount of energy than it consumes, a heat pump is more efficient than conventional gas furnaces and can even be more effective than a high-efficiency model. And even though coal-based power plants still function today, new renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are on the rise, making all-electric heating and cooling systems even more attractive to today’s environmentally aware consumers.
In addition, federal tax credits of up to $2,000 for qualified heat pumps are a key reason behind the rise of heat pumps. When added to other state and local rebates, homeowners can reduce costs even further.
“Heat pumps are increasingly more energy efficient than standard gas furnaces, and they can help you dramatically reduce your power bill—and in certain situations, by $500 or more each year,” said Cary Reed, a Service Experts HVAC professional.
How It Works
During the colder months, heat pumps pull the ambient heat from the outside air to use it for home heating by moving it through coils. The heat is sent to one or more indoor units, raising the home’s temperature. The star of the show here is the heat pump’s refrigerant, which transforms from liquid to gas–and then back to liquid–as it absorbs and emits heat along the way.
In summer, the process reverses. Heat is extracted from indoors and sent outside through the same coolant coils.
The process works as follows:
- In colder weather, a coil heat exchanger paired with a metering device extracts heat from the outside air to the liquid refrigerant inside the coil. Even at cold outdoor temperatures, there is still heat present in the outside air. As the heat is absorbed by the refrigerant, it raises its temperature to its boiling point and turns it from liquid to gas.
- Following that, a compressor pushes the gas refrigerant around the system, boosting the gas pressure so the heat is expelled into the home by a fan or blower. As the heat is emitted, the refrigerant becomes a liquid again. The process continues until the home’s thermostat is set.
- A reversing valve is used to flip the system from heating to cooling. The reversing valve is managed by the thermostat and will invert the cycle during the summer, moving heat from inside the home to the outside.
New Innovations to the Rescue
Once the outdoor temperature falls, heat pumps become less efficient and have trouble maintaining the same heating capacity. But top brands have implemented significant technological advancements to improve the capacity AND efficiency of heat pumps during cold weather.
For one thing, the top heat pump manufacturers are creating new system designs to achieve higher SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio) minimum ratings. Installing a heat pump with a high SEER rating means lower operating costs for the system. While SEER largely pertains to cooling, the heat pump’s energy and cost savings throughout the summer rise considerably as minimum SEER standards do the same.
And in regards to a heat pump’s total capacity, many brands have developed systems that maintain optimal efficiency and heating capacity even once temperatures drop as low as -15 degrees. This is a dramatic 20- to 30-degree improvement compared to what was typical just five years ago.
“How are they achieving this? Manufacturers are using improved variable-speed compressors to reduce the time it needs to adjust power while using less energy. Additionally, the heat exchangers found in modern units are significantly bigger, which said. During extreme cold weather, the systems also employ secondary heaters that turn on below a specific temperature.
This new technology has been partly spurred by the Department of Energy’s Residential Climate Heat Pump Technology Challenge, a federal program aimed at accelerating heat pump innovation.
“The heat pump boom is actually a perfect storm,” Reed said. “People want to do the right thing for the environment while cutting costs on monthly bills, and there are major programs from the federal and state governments. We are even seeing some customers, who purchase a heat pump, will also upgrade their insulation to increase their energy efficiency and cost savings.”
To learn even more about high-efficiency heat pumps, stop by serviceexperts.com/heat-pumps. To request an appointment with a heating and cooling pro, visit our scheduling page.