3 Surprising Facts About Your Electric Heat Pump
3 pros!
Moving into a home with an air-source heat pump for the first time? Here are some practical concerns, from backup heat to frozen coils, that you should know about.
Homeowners increasingly live in homes that are heated and cooled by heat pumps rather than a traditional air conditioner and gas furnace combination.
In the past, air-source heat pump technology limitations made climates with harsh winters, like the Midwest and Northeast, difficult for an electric heat pump to work effectively. But with HVAC technology improvements and many new housing developments opting for electric-only infrastructure, more homeowners now live in homes conditioned by a heat pump for the first time.
Below are some practical details about having an electric or air-source heat pump in your home and what you can do to help it run more efficiently.
1. Emergency heat backup
The main difference you'll notice between a traditional thermostat and a heat pump thermostat is a setting called “Emergency Heat,” which is also called backup heat, heat strips or heat pack. Located inside your fan coil (the indoor part of your heat pump system), your emergency heat pack serves as a backup source of heat for your home.
Your “Emergency Heat” backup heat source comes on when either the heat pump can't reach the temperature setting or you increase the temperature setting and your system tries to raise the temperature quicker.
Emergency heat, when activated, pulls a significant amount of electricity. Significant as in like more than 10 times the amount of electricity your heat pump alone uses. Therefore, if this kicks on too much, you’ll see your electric bills skyrocket.
To avoid the spike in usage, one practical tip is to avoid large swings in temperature settings. For example, setting your home at 60 during the day and turning it up to 70 at night will likely engage your emergency heat. It’s better to keep the setback temperature, when you’re away, 3 to 5 degrees below your ideal setting.
2. Air-source heat pumps freeze and thaw
Because the heat pump operates during the winter, the outdoor temperature has an impact on the system. As the outdoor temperature drops, the heat pump coil temperature also drops.
At some point you will see frost start to develop on the outdoor heat pump system to the point that the system starts to look like an ice cube. This requires that the system periodically goes into a defrost mode. This is a normal part of the system, but many times homeowners are concerned since this can be an audibly loud process.
3. Air temperatures feel different than with gas
One of the other common questions we get is about the temperature of the air coming from the vents in the winter. This is just a fact of how the electric heat pump systems are designed to operate.
To reach a thermostat set point of 68, a heat pump will provide a lower temperature but a longer run time to reach that point. The temperature will seem colder for those accustomed to a gas furnace that has warmer temperature air coming from the vents, but a shorter run time.
You should expect the air temperature from the vents to be 95 to 100 degrees with most air-source heat pumps, whereas a gas furnace might have 120-degree temperature air coming from the vents. This will cause some homeowners to say they “feel” warmer in a home with a gas furnace.
Ultimately, the indoor temperature will be about the same, it just is a different approach to reach that comfort level.
A version of this article originally appeared on the Homesense Heating and Cooling blog.
As of March 4, 2016, this service provider was highly rated on Angie's List. Ratings are subject to change based on consumer feedback, so check Angie's List for the most up-to-date reviews. The views expressed by this author do not necessarily reflect those of Angie's List.
