Heat pumps are all-in-one cooling and heating systems that provide an excellent alternative to A/C and furnace configurations. Two of the most popular and efficient heat pump systems are air-source and geothermal. Read on to learn if a heat pump replacement or upgrade is right for your Yuma home.
Basics of Heat Pump Systems
Heat pump systems use refrigeration principles to move heat energy rather than produce heat. Here are the basics of how a heat pump operates:
- A compressor prepares refrigerant to release heat energy inside or outside your home.
- A reversing valve dictates which direction refrigerant flows to release heat.
- A heat-exchange evaporator coil inside your home extracts (“cool” mode) or releases heat energy (“heat” mode) from or to return airflow.
- An outdoor heat-exchange device performs the same function as the evaporator using outside air, ground, or water as the heat-exchange medium.
Air-Source Heat Pump Systems
If you have a central-air heat pump, you have an air-source heat pump. Air-source heat pump systems release and extract heat energy from outdoor air at the condenser coil. In regions of the country with very cold winters, air-source heat pump systems may not meet the heating demand in the wintertime because outside air is too cold. In our region, though, air-source heat pumps are very efficient and can handle Yuma’s mild winters and hot summers extremely well.
If you need a replacement or newly installed HVAC system, please contact Hansberger Refrigeration and Electric Company to learn more about air-source heat pumps.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Yuma, Arizona about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
Credit/Copyright Attribution: “Slavo-Valigursky/Shutterstock”
