How Do Inverter Heat Pumps Work? What Are Their Benefits?

March 14, 2018 7:40 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

Heat pumps work by drawing energy from outdoor air using refrigerant to bring that air inside and keep your home warm during the winter. During the summer months, however, you can invert this cycle, pushing heat out from your home and cooling the air inside of it.

Heat pumps, unlike standard air conditioners and furnaces, offer you a high level of energy efficiency, which helps to keep your energy bills low each month. A variable-speed or inverter heat pump maximizes this efficiency, and minimizes the amount of energy that would otherwise be lost during the refrigerant cycle.

Here’s a quick overview of the function of inverter heat pumps and how they work from a company providing a full range of services for HVAC in Panama City, FL.

The specifics

When operating on a standard refrigerant cycle, the levels of that refrigerant continually travel between the condenser and the compressor, transforming liquid to gas, depending on the temperature. Once your home’s air temperature reaches the specific level you have specified on your thermostat, the refrigerant cycle ends, and only begins again if the temperature in your home changes. Every time the cycle begins anew, the system consumes energy to bring the refrigerant to the proper temperature before beginning the heating or cooling process.

When using an inverter heat pump, however, the refrigerant cycle will operate at various speeds based on the heating loads and temperature. You are able to save energy using the system, because the inverter automatically adjusts the refrigerant’s speed and cuts down on starts and stops.

Pros and cons

The advantages of such a system are clear. You’ll be able to minimize the amount of energy you lose during the cycling process, which can in turn reduce energy consumption and lower your monthly heating bills. This has an effect on the environment as well, as you’ll be reducing your carbon footprint.

You are also able to maintain a higher temperature at the cost you would have otherwise been paying to heat to a lower temperature, thanks to the increased efficiency of your system.

Additional savings can come in the form of federal and state tax credits, as inverter technology will significantly improve your home’s energy efficiency.

There are, however, some drawbacks. First, people who are unfamiliar with HVAC terminology might confuse a variable speed heat pump with similar terms used to describe heat pump blowers. Variable speed blowers have some advantages of their own, but these advantages are unrelated to what we are primarily talking about with this article.

In addition, some types of inverter pumps will cost more than standard models, meaning you’ll have to pay a higher up-front cost to benefit from the long-term savings, and they may require extra maintenance due to a more complex operating system.

These are just a few of the considerations to keep in mind as you look at inverter heat pumps for your home. Contact Complete Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Inc. today with your questions about HVAC in Panama City, FL.

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