If you’re new to the Lowcountry, or to the southeastern part of the United States in general, you may be hearing the word “heat pump” used quite often when someone is talking about their HVAC system or air conditioning in general.
When many people first hear the term “heat pump” they’re thrown off by the word “heat” as only being related to cold weather conditions, when in fact this term is all-encompassing for all weather conditions here in Charleston.
To help take some of the mystery out of heat pumps for you, below is an in-depth look at what they are, how they work, and finally some important heat pump brands and manufacturers you should be aware of.
What Is A Heat Pump? And How Does It Work?
A heat pump — very simply — is a piece of equipment that moves heat from one place to another. In our case, an air source heat pump is used to transfer heat in (during the winter) and out (during the summer). You may see something called a ground-source heat pump as well, more commonly referred to as geothermal heat pump, but you can review that topic in our other geothermal heating and cooling blog posts.
The heat pumps we’re referring to have the unique ability to transfer heat in both directions. That is, it can pull heat out of your home in the summertime and into your home during the wintertime.
When you have a furnace installed, it creates the heat on its own (using gas, electricity, etc.) to heat your home — heat pumps, generally speaking, do not create heat on their own. They pull/absorb any ambient heat from a source (the air outside) to warm your home.
In the summertime, a heat pump will operate exactly like any traditional central air conditioning system — pulling out the warmth and humidity in your home and transfer it to the outside air.
Heat Pump Manufacturers & Brands
With numerous manufacturers of heat pumps available for you to choose from it can be hard to know exactly which one will best fit your specific comfort needs here in the Lowcountry.
Like we always say, if you don’t happen to know something or don’t have experience with a certain area of expertise, rely on the people who eat, sleep and breathe it, day-in and day-out: your local HVAC company in Charleston.
If there’s one thing all HVAC companies hate, it’s faulty equipment — including heat pumps — so when they recommend a manufacturer it means they’ve most likely had great experience with them and they have happy customers because of it.
One manufacturer of heat pumps that continuously makes our customers happy is Trane.
Trane continues to innovate upon an already great set of heat pump lines, which is why we almost always tend to recommend going with them.
As Trane Comfort Specialists, we also can offer better pricing and longer warranties when you get your heat pump installed.
As you can see from what we reviewed above, heat pumps can play an important role in your personal home comfort here in the Lowcountry and also help save you money in certain circumstances.
Should you have any other heat pump questions or HVAC questions in general, you can always contact us anytime — we’ll be glad to help.
