How Does A Heat Pump Work In The Winter?

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Here in the Thibodaux and Houma area, chances are good your home comfort system is a heat pump system. That’s because heat pumps are the perfect heating and cooling solution for our climate. An all-in-one system, your heat pump cools and dehumidifies your home in the summer and heats it in the winter. But how, you ask?

 

How Heat Pumps Work

 

Heat pumps use a heat transfer process to heat and cool your home. Put in the simplest terms,. They move heat from where you don’t want it to where you do want it.

Here in Acadiana, almost all heat pumps are air source heat pumps, meaning they pull heat from the air, rather than from the earth as geothermal heat pumps do. Your air source heat pump consists of an outdoor compressor, and indoor air handler and connecting refrigerant lines. The compressor circulates refrigerant back and forth through the refrigerant lines, capturing heat as it goes and releasing it to achieve your desired indoor temperature.

In summertime, the heat pump will capture heat from the air inside your home and release to the outdoors, while in wintertime it will capture heat from the air outside and release it into your home.

 

But How Do You Pull Heat From Winter Air?

 

We know it seems crazy to think your heat pump is extracting heat from the air outside right now. After all, it’s COLD outside! How can you pull heat from cold air.

But the truth is, even cold air has a certain amount of heat. Incredibly, an air source heat pump can get usable heat from air that’s as little as 20℉!

That being said, heat pumps are better in warmer climates than cold. That’s why they’re such a great heating and cooling option for our area. If you lived somewhere really cold, like Minnesota, you’d need a furnace to use when the temperature got too low even for the heat pump, but here in Thibodaux it’s rarely below freezing, so a heat pump is really all you need.

This is great news, because heat pumps are a lot less expensive to run than furnaces. And they take up less space. So you get cheaper, more convenient heating and cooling from a single system. Sounds like a win-win!

 

Still Have Questions? We’ve Got Answers!

Whether you have a heat pump already or this post has convinced you to have one installed, Doug’s is here to answer all your heating and cooling questions. Call us anytime at (985) 746-1116

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