A heat pump is an all-in-one system that heats and cools your home. It gets a little confusing for folks so we’ll do our best to explain:
A heat pump is an air conditioner. If you are familiar with an air conditioning unit on the outside of the home, a heat pump looks just like an air conditioner and it provides air conditioning. In the summer, it removes heat from the home.
It also can “reverse” and provide heat to the home during the heating season. That is, it is extracting heat from the air (even though it’s cold to us, there’s heat energy outside) and bringing that heat into your home. Sounds simple, right?
We get a lot of questions about heat pumps so we are happy to patiently walk you through it. Many times, people are interested in them because they have heard about how efficient they are. They may also have heard from friends that they “don’t work well” when it gets really cold. We can address all of that.
Heat Pump Frequently Asked Questions
In most scenarios, yes, it can. With a ducted system, even if the heat pump can’t keep up on the coldest days, the system will have a back up heat system installed to provide additional electric based heat to supplement the heat pump. Or, you may pair a heat pump with a fossil fuel furnace for a Dual Fuel or Hybrid system (see below!).
We get this question a lot so we want to tackle it heat on. We always say comfort is subjective. We aim to lay out the facts and ultimately let you decide. Heat pumps make heat by warming the coil and using a fan to blow warm air into your home. The coil of a heat pump is not as hot as the burners of an oil or gas based furnace. Therefore, the temperature of the air coming out of the vents is also not as hot when using a fossil fuel source. What does this mean? We can get the temperature you want in your home. If you want it to be 70 degrees inside when it’s 7 degrees outside, we’ll get you a heat pump that can make it 70 degrees. The “feel” of that 70 degrees is going to be a little different, especially if you are switching over from oil or gas. The air temperature coming from the vents just isn’t as hot. Usually people appreciate this in milder temperatures because the heat cycles less and is more consistent (which is 70% of heating season). The difference is more felt on the coldest days.
A cold climate heat pump is a specially designed heat pump that can produce more heat in the coldest temperatures.
Normally, a heat pump will start to lose capacity as the outdoor temperature goes below freezing. For example, many heat pumps produce 60-70% of their overall capacity when it’s 17 degrees out.
A Cold Climate heat pump will maintain capacity to lower temperatures.
While the definition of a Cold Climate heat pump can be a bit broad (and vague in our view), the best way to define one is this: Does it produce 100% of capacity at 5 degree outdoor temperature? If yes, you can likely consider it a cold weather heat pump.
Of course. However, it’s important to note that for a majority of homes in our region, even the most powerful cold climate heat pump is insufficient in capacity to heat your home on the coldest days. A heat pump system will still require an electric back up to supplement when the heat pump can’t keep up.
This is a system that uses a heat pump AND and alternative heat source. As we said above, a heat pump usually loses capacity as it gets colder, just when you need more heat. One remedy to this is to pair a heat pump with a gas or oil furnace. When the heat pump is no longer capable of heating completely, the gas or oil takes over to provide the heating. This usually is set at around 30 degrees outdoor temperature or in smarter systems, when the system knows its the best time to switch over. So, this is different then the all electric heat pump system that uses an electric back up. The fossil fuel back can have lower operating costs than electric in very cold temperatures and for some it provides a bit more comfort.
