It’s not hard to see why heat pumps are becoming so popular among homeowners. They’re energy efficient, safe, and can both heat and cool a home. Plenty of people are eager to reap the benefits of heat pumps, but not many of them know how a heat pump actually works. The more you know about a system, the better you’ll be able to gauge whether or not it fits your needs. With that in mind, let’s examine how a heat pump works.
Heat Pump Construction and Operation
A heat pump has two main parts, the indoor and outdoor units. As you might expect, the indoor unit is installed inside the house, while the outdoor unit is installed outside. The two units are connected by power and refrigerant lines, which are vital to the operation of the system. Inside each unit is a coil, which is connected to the refrigerant line that runs between the two units.
When the heat pump is turned on, the outside unit begins to evaporate refrigerant inside its coil. As the refrigerant evaporates into gas, it draws heat from the air surrounding the unit. The gas then travels down the refrigerant line, taking the heat with it. When it reaches the indoor unit, the refrigerant is condensed back into a liquid and the heat is released to warm the home. This cycle continues as long as the heat is on, with the refrigerant constantly being converted from liquid to gas and back again.
Advantages of a Heat Pump
Heat pumps have many advantages over more traditional heating systems, the first of which being their energy efficiency. Heat pumps do not burn fuel in order to create heat, instead moving existing heat from one place to another. This is a much less wasteful process than the methods combustion systems use, and saves quite a bit of money over time.
Heat pumps are also safer than most traditional heating system. Any time fuel is being combusted, there are leftover waste materials that are often vented out of the house. In the case of natural gas, these byproducts include toxic gases like carbon monoxide. While systems that produce such pollutants are designed to safely dispose of them, there is always a risk of a malfunction exposing members of the house to them. Heat pumps have no such thing to worry about.
If you’d like to know more about heat pumps and their benefits, call Certified Air Systems, Inc. We provide professional heat pump service in the Oviedo area.
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