What size heat pump do you need?
The size you need depends on the size and layout of your home, your energy needs, your insulation, and more.
Air conditioning capacity is typically measured in British thermal units, or Btu. When you’re buying a window AC or a portable unit, you usually need to choose one based on the size of the room you plan to use it in. But selecting a heat pump system is a little more complicated than that. It’s still based, in part, on square footage—experts we interviewed agreed with the general calculation of about 1 ton of air conditioning (equivalent to 12,000 Btu) for every 500 square feet in your home. In addition, there is a set of standards maintained by the Air Conditioning Contractors of America trade association called Manual J (PDF), which calculates the impact of other factors such as insulation, air filtration, windows, and local climate to give you a more accurate load size for a specific home. A good contractor should be able to help you with this.
You also have a few monetary reasons to size your system correctly. Most statewide programs base their incentives on the efficiency of the system—after all, a more efficient system uses less electricity, which helps cut back more on fossil-fuel consumption. In Massachusetts, for example, you can get up to $10,000 back by installing heat pumps in your entire home, but only if the system achieves a certain performance standard (PDF) as set by the Air-Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration Institute (AHRI), a trade association for HVAC and refrigeration professionals. In other words, an inefficient home with an under- or oversized system could actually disqualify you from a rebate, as well as add to your monthly energy bills.
Will a heat pump even work in your home?
A heat pump almost certainly will work in your home, because heat pumps are especially modular. “They’re able to be adapted to basically every situation,” said Dan Zamagni, the director of operations at Boston Standard Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling, the company that worked on the Ritters’ house. “Whether it’s a really old home, or we’re limited by the construction we can do in people’s homes without being too disruptive—there’s always a way to make it work.”
Zamagni went on to explain that a heat pump condenser—the part that goes outside your home—can be mounted on a wall, the roof, the ground, or even on a bracketed stand or leveling pad. Ductless systems also provide you with plenty of versatility for interior mounting (assuming you don’t already have a duct system or room to add one). Things might get a bit complicated if you live in, say, a tightly packed row house in a historic district that restricts what you can put on the facade, but even then, a savvy contractor could probably figure something out.
What are the best brands of heat pumps?
When you’re buying something as expensive and long-lasting as a heat pump, you should make sure you’re getting something from a manufacturer that has a good reputation and can provide you with quality customer support for years to come.
That being said, the heat pump you ultimately pick will likely have more to do with finding a good contractor than going with your personal preference. More often than not, your contractor or installer will be the one sourcing the parts. There may be some models that have better efficiency or distribution in certain geographic regions. And you should be confident that the contractor is familiar with this expensive equipment that they’re permanently installing in your home.
All of the manufacturers we mentioned above also have some sort of preferred dealer program—contractors that are specifically trained in their products and can provide manufacturer-approved service. Many preferred dealers also have priority access to parts and equipment.
Generally speaking, it’s better to find a good preferred contractor first and then take advantage of their expertise with the brands they’re familiar with. That service often comes with better warranties, too. It doesn’t do much good to fall in love with a specific heat pump only to find that no one in your area knows how to service or install it.
How do you find the most efficient heat pump?
Looking at a heat pump’s ratings can help, but don’t focus exclusively on that. Almost any heat pump offers such major advantages over traditional equipment that it’s usually not necessary to seek out the absolute highest metrics within the heat pump category.
Most heat pumps have two different efficiency ratings. The seasonal energy efficiency ratio, or SEER, measures the system’s cooling capacity as it compares with the energy required to run the system. By contrast, the heating seasonal performance factor, or HSPF, measures the relationship between the system’s heating capacity and its energy consumption. The US Department of Energy recommends seeking out a higher HSPF in colder climates or a higher SEER in warmer climates.
Heat pumps that qualify for Energy Star status need to have a SEER rating of at least 15 and an HSPF of at least 8.5. It’s not uncommon to find higher-end heat pumps with a SEER of 21 or an HSPF of 10 or 11.
As with heat pump sizing, the ultimate energy efficiency of your entire home will depend on a number of factors in addition to the heat pump itself, such as weatherization and air filtration, the climate in which you live, and how often you plan on using your system.
Can a heat pump work with existing HVAC ducts?
Yep, if you already have a central air system in your home, you can use your existing duct system to move the air from your heat pump. And you don’t actually need ducts: Air-source heat pumps are also available in the form of ductless mini-splits. Most manufacturers offer both options, and a good contractor can advise you on setting up different zones within your home to maximize comfort and make the best use of what your home already has installed.
Heat pumps are versatile when it comes to retrofits into existing ducting, and they can also work within a hybrid system that has both ducted and ductless units, feeding off a single compressor positioned outside the house. When the Ritter family was upgrading their Boston home with heat pumps, for example, they used the existing air handlers to create a new ducted air system on the second floor, and then they added two ductless mini-splits to cover the office and the master bedroom upstairs, all of which tied back to the same source. “It’s a bit of a unique system,” Mike Ritter told us, “but in our case, it just ended up working best.”
In general, try to get a few different ideas from contractors about how to adapt your existing HVAC system. Doing so might save you some money, or it might not be worth the effort or expense. One encouraging factor we found in our research is that your existing system, whatever type it is, shouldn’t prevent you from getting a heat pump to supplement, offset, or replace what’s already there. You can adapt a heat pump to pretty much any home layout, as long as you (and, really, your contractor) know what you’re doing.
Are there heat pumps that do only cooling?
Yes, but we don’t recommend such models. Sure, if you live somewhere that has a warmer climate year-round, it might sound redundant to add a new heating system to your home. But such a system is “essentially the same piece of equipment with a few extra parts, and you can make the swap with almost no extra work,” said Nate Adams, a home-performance consultant, in an interview with The New York Times. Those extra parts cost only a few hundred dollars more, and that markup is likely to be covered by a rebate anyway. There’s also the fact that heat pumps get exponentially more efficient as the home’s temperature approaches that comfort zone in the mid-60s. So on those rare days when it does drop into the 50s, the system barely has to use any energy to warm your home back up. You’re basically getting the heat for free at that point.
If you already have an oil- or gas-powered heat source that you don’t want to replace, you have a few ways to set up a hybrid-heat or dual-heat system that uses those fossil fuels as a backup or supplement to the heat pump. This kind of system can save you some money during a particularly frigid winter—and believe it or not, it can actually be a better choice for reducing carbon emissions. We have a separate section with more details below.
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Post time: Nov-26-2022