Spring is coming, and with it, an unforeseen forecast for many. Will it rain? Will it snow? Will it be 75 degrees and sunny? There is no need to prepare tomorrow’s outfit when the sky has a last-minute decision, but you do have to prepare your home’s equipment. Spring means running to turn off your heater and open all windows, then running in the opposite direction to turn on air conditioning when the house is abruptly sweating. The next day is a repeat in reverse. Unlike typical sources of heat, like natural gas and electricity, heat pumps use compressorized refrigerant technology to perform both heating and cooling all in one device.
In the summer cooling season they push heat from inside to the outdoors, drawing in heat to circulate within a water condenser loop and release it externally. Conversely, in the winter heating season, heat pumps extract heat from the buildings condenser loop, transfer it to the air stream, and circulate it throughout your building.
Heat pumps are different from other heating products because they use refrigerant, the chemical found in refrigerators or air conditioning units. Refrigerant exists in a gas or liquid form, and has an abnormally low boiling point when compared to water. Because of this, refrigerant is able to rapidly cool or heat air moving through the unit. Air circulates across the refrigerant coil inside of the heat pump, warming the air when the unit is in heating mode. A reversing valve controls the direction of refrigerant flow within the heat pump, and can be switched for cooling.
Refrigerant’s low boiling point also means it easily shifts between a liquid and a gas, evaporating into a vapor when it is heated. In liquid form, it takes in heat, and in gas form, it can easily release that heat internally or externally, depending on the season. The vapor form is again compressed to achieve a high temperature vapor state before rejecting its heat content through changing phases to its liquid state at the units condenser.
Another novelty of the heat pump is its high coefficient of performance (COP). For electric heaters, every kilowatt (KW) of electricity consumed (purchased by the user) results in one KW of heat expelled to warm the space. This means the COP is 1.0. Now we can compare that COP with heat pumps. For every one KW of energy a heat pump consumes, two or three KW of heat are released into one’s home, making the COP 2.0 or 3.0. In other words, users get twice or three times as much heat for every one KW of energy bought.
Heat pumps kill two birds with one stone! (No birds are harmed in the manufacturing or functioning of heat pumps.) You get winter heating and summer cooling all in one device. This product is great for customers with limited real estate since they don’t take up too much space. Less gas and electricity are used so they are better for the environment, they are more cost-efficient and many heat pumps have modern technology through which heating, cooling and the process of switching between the two can be controlled with a mobile app.
According to the International Energy Agency, exacerbated use of heat pumps in place of regular heating and cooling systems can reduce global Carbon Dioxide emissions by half a gigatonne by 2030. If you’re not sure how much half a gigatonne is, just know it’s a lot, and by purchasing a heat pump, you can be a part of that change.
For more information on purchasing a heat pump or other heating and cooling equipment, contact Northrich company. 216-581-4750 or go to www.northrich.com