A heat pump is part of a home heating and cooling system and is installed outside your home. Like an air conditioner such as central air, it can cool your home, but it’s also capable of providing heat. In cooler months, a heat pump pulls heat from the cold outdoor air and transfers it indoors, and in warmer months, it pulls heat out of indoor air to cool your home. They are powered by electricity and transfer heat using refrigerant to provide comfort all year round. Because they handle both cooling and heating, homeowners may not need to install separate systems to heat their homes. In colder climates, an electric heat strip can be added to the indoor fan coil for additional capabilities. Heat pumps do not burn fossil fuel like furnaces do, making them more environmentally friendly.
The two most common types of heat pumps are air-source and ground-source. Air-source heat pumps transfer heat between indoor air and outdoor air, and are more popular for residential heating and cooling.
Ground-source heat pumps, sometimes called geothermal heat pumps, transfer heat between the air inside your home and the ground outside. These are more expensive to install but are typically more efficient and have a lower operating cost due to the consistency of the ground temperature throughout the year.
How does a heat pump work? Heat pumps transfer heat from one place to another by different air or heat sources. Air source heat pumps move heat between the air inside a home and the air outside a home, while ground source heat pumps (known as geothermal heat pumps) transfer heat between the air inside a home and the ground outside a home. We will focus on air source heat pumps, but the basic operation is the same for both.
A typical air source heat pump system consists of two major components, an outdoor unit (which looks just like the outdoor unit of a split-system air conditioning system) and an indoor air handler unit. Both the indoor and outdoor unit contain various important sub-components.
OUTDOOR UNIT
The outdoor unit contains a coil and a fan. The coil operates as either a condenser (in cooling mode) or an evaporator (in heating mode). The fan blows outside air over the coil to facilitate the heat exchange.
INDOOR UNIT
Like the outdoor unit, the indoor unit, commonly referred to as the air handler unit, contains a coil and a fan. The coil acts as an evaporator (in cooling mode) or a condenser (in heating mode). The fan is responsible for moving air across the coil and throughout the ducts in the home.
REFRIGERANT
The refrigerant is the substance that absorbs and rejects heat as it circulates throughout the heat pump system.
COMPRESSOR
The compressor pressurizes the refrigerant and moves it throughout the system.
REVERSING VALVE
The part of the heat pump system that reverses the flow of refrigerant, allowing the system to operate in the opposite direction and switch between heating and cooling.
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Post time: May-08-2023